Six in the morning.
A gentle hand stroked Jiang Ye’s face, waking him up.
He opened his eyes to see Cen Yemeng, wearing a plush pajama set, sitting by the bed with her long hair cascading down.
“Honey, your study light is on, and the screen has been flashing. Is there anything urgent?” she asked, a hint of worry in her voice.
“I’ll go take a look.” Jiang Ye got up, gave her a kiss, and left the bedroom.
The screen on his study desk was glowing brightly!
Jiang Ye squinted as he approached, and the screen’s light immediately returned to normal.
[The initial stage of the intelligent bacteria language learning has been completed. Simple communication tests can now be conducted.]
[Please input some simple sentences:]
Jiang Ye felt a bit at a loss.
Communicating with fungi?
After a moment of hesitation, he typed two words, “Hello!”
From the view on the office desk screen, he could see the cultivation pond. On the white LED screen at the bottom of the pond, the words “Hello” were as large as tires.
Hundreds of sesame-seed-sized intelligent bacteria clusters floated in the liquid.
Upon seeing the characters, the sesame seeds rapidly disintegrated.
After about half a minute, the white intelligent bacteria re-gathered, forming characters the size of two palms, along with an exclamation mark, spelling out “Hello!”
Jiang Ye was delighted. They could actually communicate!
He recorded the process and sent it to Li Nannan.
Li Nannan immediately replied:
“What kind of communication is this? It’s just mechanical repetition and simple imitation. You need to ask questions and have them answer. That’s what communication is!”
Jiang Ye found it difficult. “What can I ask?”
Li Nannan: “Anything.”
Jiang Ye found it even more difficult. The word “anything” was the hardest.
Frowning, he considered questions that the bacterial colonies could answer.
A moment later, he typed: “Do you know Goldbach’s Conjecture?”
The intelligent bacteria dispersed, disappearing into the liquid.
After a full two minutes, just as Jiang Ye was about to give up, the white characters reappeared.
“No.”
These three simple words made Jiang Ye incredibly excited.
This was communication, wasn’t it!
Even though both the question and answer were foolish, they were just bacteria, after all!
He sent the video to Li Nannan.
“Very good, this marks the evolution to the communication stage. Language learning must continue. I’ll send you the advanced language learning program. Take good care of them.” Li Nannan was very satisfied.
Jiang Ye: “Director, I have a question. Don’t bacteria reproduce very quickly? Why have these intelligent bacteria only grown a little after being cultivated for so long?”
Li Nannan: “These are not ordinary bacteria. Reproduction is not their mission. This speed is acceptable. Continue cultivating them. Eventually, they will multiply, and their numbers will be frighteningly large.”
Jiang Ye received the program and downloaded it to the cultivation facility.
The intelligent bacteria began a new round of learning.
Perhaps due to the foundational language they had acquired, the progress of this new round of learning was very rapid.
Just a week later, Jiang Ye returned home one evening.
“Honey, your desk is lit up again,” Cen Yemeng said as soon as she saw him.
“Okay.” Jiang Ye patted her head and went straight upstairs to the study.
The office desk screen displayed the monitoring feed of the cultivation pond.
The intelligent bacteria, which usually dispersed, had now automatically gathered on the surface of the liquid, forming a line of text:
“We need to increase in number. We require more alcohol. Please provide us with alcohol.”
Jiang Ye was astonished.
They were truly becoming intelligent!
Currently, the intelligent bacteria occupied only one cultivation pond, with nine empty ponds remaining.
After consulting with Li Nannan, Jiang Ye opened a new pond, connecting it to the old one, and filled it with alcohol.
A moment later, the intelligent bacteria formed characters the size of two heads on the surface of the alcohol:
“Thank you.”
Jiang Ye typed, “You’re welcome.” The intelligent bacteria saw it and quickly dispersed.
The next morning, upon waking, the intelligent bacteria on the surface of the liquid had increased in size. Previously, each cluster was about the size of a sesame seed; now, they had grown to the size of white rice grains.
“We need more alcohol. Please give us more alcohol,” the rice grains arranged themselves.
Jiang Ye typed, “The alcohol concentration is very high. You can continue to consume the alcohol.”
The rice grains dispersed, and after a moment, they re-gathered.
“We have enough food, but we require space.”
Jiang Ye suddenly understood, and at the same time, he was secretly amazed. These bacteria had already learned many advanced vocabulary words. Moreover, they could express their needs and even use polite words like “please” and “thank you.”
He opened all ten ponds in the cultivation facility at once and filled them with high-concentration alcohol.
The effect was quite remarkable. Within just two days, the rice grains of the intelligent bacteria had increased to thousands, creating a spectacular expanse of milky white.
On the morning of the third day, the intelligent bacteria finally formed a new line of text:
“We would like to try beer.”
Jiang Ye was quite surprised and quickly drove to a bar in Binhai City to order forty cases of beer. The cultivation ponds now had a larger capacity, and forty cases were just enough for them to “try.”
It took over an hour to add all the beer to the ponds.
Returning to his desk, he typed, “Your requested beer has arrived.”
“Thank you,” the intelligent bacteria quickly formed the characters. “The taste is very unique.”
By the time the beer in the ponds was finished, it was already eleven o’clock at night. The intelligent bacteria arranged themselves into new characters:
“Beer seems to have a certain beneficial effect on our evolution.”
“The composition of beer is more complex. Although it’s not as potent as high-proof alcohol, it provides some entirely new elements. We are not yet sure of the purpose of these elements, but we have undergone some changes.”
“If possible, we would like to try yellow wine!”
Jiang Ye was quite astonished.
It felt as though after consuming a pond of beer, the intelligence of these bacteria had suddenly increased, and they were talking much more.
He immediately called the supermarket and requested forty cases of yellow wine.
That night, a large quantity of yellow wine was poured into the cultivation ponds.
“Here is the yellow wine you requested. Please try it,” Jiang Ye said, not forgetting to introduce it.
“The taste is very unique. We are enjoying it very much,” the intelligent bacteria arranged themselves.
The next morning, more than half of the yellow wine had been consumed.
Jiang Ye came to his desk. “Good morning. How was the drink?”
The intelligent bacteria in the pond quickly arranged themselves:
“Good morning (๑•̀ㅂ•́)و✧”
“The taste of yellow wine is very unique. We are thoroughly enjoying it (✿◡‿◡)”
“Like beer, although yellow wine’s alcohol content is not as high, it contains some very interesting substances. We are not yet sure of the specific functions of these substances, but after consuming it, we feel many changes have occurred within our bodies. (‾◡◝)”
“If possible, today we would like to try red wine (っ*´Д`)っ”
“Thank you very much (ψ｀∇´)ψ”
Jiang Ye was so surprised that he was almost numb.
After drinking the yellow wine, these bacteria had actually learned to use emoticons and act cute?
He didn’t understand the specific mechanism, but he could vaguely sense that the intelligence level of these bacteria had further increased.
He directly called the supermarket. “Send me forty cases of all your varieties of wine. Deliver one type each day. Send me the itemized bill, and I will pay you immediately.”
Since the intelligent bacteria enjoyed trying new things, he would satisfy them.
He wanted to see what changes would occur after they had consumed all the alcoholic beverages on the market.
Jiang Ye had a premonition that the next evolutionary form of these intelligent bacteria would be quite astonishing and completely unexpected.