C14 (1/2)
It was not the look of a normal child.
There was no warmth in his eyes.
”Haha, that was a joke.” Alpha suddenly laughed, and then became the same as before: ”Did you scare him?”
”Do you think that's funny?” I suddenly felt that I had been fooled. Angry, I shouted, ”Next time, don't go through my things.”
”What's wrong?” When Lina heard my voice, she walked out of the kitchen.
I quickly took a few pages to cover up the book about deformed children. ”I …”
”Olina, I'm sorry, Alpha messed up Shin's book just now.” Alpha rushed ahead of me and said, ”I don't know what this research is really important for.”
”What research materials?” Lina asked as she walked over.
”I don't understand Chinese.” Alpha said.
He was lying.
”Oh.” Lina did not mind, she knew that the direction of my research had always been eastern history. ”Next time you want to read something, you have to first talk to Shin, okay?”
”Alright. ”I'm sorry.” After Alpha finished speaking, he held Lina's hand and walked out.
”It's a failure.” When Alpha was walking out of the door, he said this out of the blue.
I was stunned for a moment before suddenly reacting. The page that Alpha had just read had been unearthed in 1930, and the oldest deformed bone that I had found thus far was labeled ”Starchild”.
The Star-Child was discovered in a cave south of Chihuahua, Mexico, at least 900 years ago. The stellar child's skull is twice the size of a normal human skull, and has at least 25 anomalies compared to a normal human skull, such as the absence of the frontal sinus and the absence of masticatory muscles.
It was said that the star-child had eight hand bones and two coccyx, but was lost in the process. If such a child existed in this world, he would probably be no different from a crawling bug.
After the starchild's skeleton was unearthed, it attracted the attention of a doctor from the California Genetics Laboratory and several other experts in cranial cavity physiology, who believed that the skull was the result of a mixture of a human mother and an unknown race father. However, it was later classified as a teratogen and included in the teaching book on the history of genetic diseases.
But why did Alpha say that it was a failure?
20 February 1988
When I got home from work, the book about genetics that was locked in the drawer was gone.
Lina never looks through my things, we all respect each other's privacy. My first thought was that the kid had taken my book.
He was the only one who knew about this book.
”Lina, has Alpha been here before today?” I asked Lina.
”Yes, he came over to sit with his grandmother this afternoon.” Lina casually said as she read the magazine.
”You … Always with them in the middle? Have you ever left? ” I asked as gently as I could.
”No, I was at home the whole time. I didn't go out.” Lina thought for a while: ”I made a pot of coffee in the kitchen, does that count?”
”How long have you been making coffee?”
”What's the matter with you again, Great Detective? How long can a pot of coffee last, two minutes? ” Lina thought that I was joking with her. ”It should be shorter than you going to the toilet.”
”I suspect that Alpha took my things.” I was silent for a while and still decided to tell Lina.
”What do you mean? What did he take from you? ”
”A book. I locked it in a drawer when I went out in the morning. It's gone now.” ”No,” I said.
Lina put down the magazine: ”Alpha stole your book? Have you found out? ”
”Yes.”
”Where did you put it?”
”Ugh …” I'm locked in a drawer. ” Actually, I am not a person who would lie. After being married for such a long time, I have almost never lied to Lina before.
”... Alpha knows where your drawer key is? ”
I shook my head. ”I have the key in the map of the age of great navigation on the shelf.”
Lina looked towards the bookshelf and very quickly, she turned around to look at me and said. ”Have I gone mad, or have you?”
It took me a few seconds to realise what Lina was saying. The bookshelf was almost two and a half meters tall, and the top row was only possible if I reached out my hand. A 1.23 meter child, even if he tiptoed, would not be able to get the books on the shelves.
”Perhaps …” Maybe Maria helped him get it? ” For a moment I was speechless.
”So now you want me to believe that two minutes after I went to make coffee, Alpha let her grandmother go to the bookshelf and accurately found the place to hide the key. After opening the drawer to take away your book, he put the key back, then returned to the sofa to hide the book?” Lina looked at me with doubt in her eyes. ”Do you think that an old man with the side effects of a stroke and difficulty in moving would be able to complete a complex operation that even I found hard to accomplish within 2 minutes?”
”Lei, what happened to you?” Lina lifted her head, and slowly, a tear flowed down the corner of her eye: ”Ever since I moved here, I feel that you have been moving further and further away from me. I don't know what you're thinking, I feel that I never understood you.”
”Suppose what you say is true, then what is his motive? Why did he steal your book? ” Lina looked into my eyes: ”What exactly is that book? Why did you lock it up? ”
I was speechless.
”Genetics... But … Curiosity... Its content may be related to my later research. ” I can't even convince myself.
”Lei, you won't lie.”
Lina walked into the bedroom and turned off the light.
I couldn't sleep, so when I finished writing my last two nights report, I glanced at the clock on my desk. It was almost three o'clock.
When night fell, the temperature dropped. Feeling a bit of coldness, he was just about to get up and put on his clothes. Suddenly, Lina's voice came out from the bedroom.