Night fell.
The dining table was laden with delicacies, its grandeur second only to an imperial banquet.
Jiang Ye and Cen Yemeng sat together, while Jiang Senlin sat beside Cen Yemeng, obediently gazing at the table's edge. At his height, he couldn't yet see the dishes on the table.
Jiang Senlin resembled a miniature old man, his face covered in age spots and wrinkles, his scalp bald, his eyelids droopy, evoking the appearance of a sea turtle's eyes.
Cen Yemeng continuously fed him, neglecting her own meal. Jiang Ye, in turn, kept feeding his wife.
"Daddy," Jiang Senlin suddenly said, his voice as faint as a mosquito's hum.
Cen Yemeng froze.
Jiang Ye also froze.
The couple exchanged glances, then simultaneously turned their attention to Jiang Senlin.
"Son, what did you just say?" Cen Yemeng asked.
"Did he call me Daddy?" Jiang Ye's eyes widened.
Jiang Senlin remained silent, tilting his head to look at the bottom of a plate by the table's edge.
"Baby, say it again," Cen Yemeng urged.
"Call me Daddy!" Jiang Ye encouraged.
Jiang Senlin was unmoved, quiet and still.
Cen Yemeng turned to her husband. "I didn't mishear, did I? He called you Daddy."
"You're probably right. I heard it too, very faintly, but it was the sound of 'Daddy'," Jiang Ye said gleefully. "Once he starts speaking, he'll be calling us fluently in a few days!"
Cen Yemeng's expression soured.
She shot Jiang Ye a glare and buried her head in her food.
"What's wrong?" Jiang Ye reached out to hug her.
"I'm so annoyed!"
"Why are you annoyed again?"
"I have him call me 'Mommy' every day, repeating it eight hundred times, while you only say it a few times. And he ends up calling you 'Daddy' first!" Cen Yemeng said, her face troubled. "Children are supposed to be closer to their mothers, but why is Jiang Senlin like this!"
Jiang Ye inwardly rejoiced, thinking, *He's truly my son.*
Feigning comfort, he said, "Maybe he called you 'Mommy' several times when we weren't around, and we just didn't hear. This time, it was just a coincidence. Don't be angry, why get angry with a child?"
"I don't care, I'm angry, and you have to compensate me," Cen Yemeng said, punching his thigh with her fist.
"Alright, alright, how do you want me to compensate you?" Jiang Ye held her tighter.
"You figure it out!" Cen Yemeng hit his back.
Jiang Ye thought for a few seconds, then directly picked her up and headed towards the bedroom.
"This doesn't count!" Cen Yemeng struggled. "We haven't finished dinner yet! Senlin is still here!"
Jiang Ye continued walking forward. "I'll take you to the bedroom first, then I'll come back for Senlin."
As he reached the study door, Jiang Ye froze.
The desk lamp was on again.
"You go back to work, I'll go feed the child," Cen Yemeng wriggled free.
Jiang Ye walked to the desk and looked at the screen.
The intelligent bacteria had turned a glowing white, resembling silver.
Thousands of silver bean-like shapes floated on the surface of the liquid:
"Please answer the following questions:"
"Who are you that gave us the wine?"
"What are we?"
"What is our meaning?"
Jiang Ye's heart skipped a beat.
These bacteria had started to think!
Before, they either did math problems or asked for food, like typical good students, studying when full and eating when hungry.
But now, they were starting to have wild thoughts!
He took a picture and sent it to Li Nannan.
Li Nannan: "Chatting with them is beneficial for intellectual enhancement. Maintain a good conversational balance, be kind, and don't be rude."
Jiang Ye: "Understood!"
After a moment's thought, he typed on the screen.
Jiang Ye: "My name is Jiang Ye, and I am your master."
"You are intelligent bacteria, a type of bacteria with intelligence. Intelligence is the ability to understand the world. The world is everything you perceive, all of it is called the world. Bacteria, just look at your companions around you to understand."
"As for your meaning, I don't know for now. Perhaps we will know in the future."
The intelligent bacteria dispersed, then regrouped after a moment.
"Master, where are you? Are you glowing?"
Jiang Ye took a few seconds to realize they were probably referring to the LED screen.
Jiang Ye: "I am not glowing, you cannot see me for now. I will come to see you tomorrow morning."
The intelligent bacteria dispersed and regrouped again.
"Some of our companions have suddenly stopped moving, why is that?"
Jiang Ye: "They have likely died."
Intelligent bacteria: "Death? What is death?"
Jiang Ye: "Before you had memories, it was the feeling of death. No joy, no anger, no sorrow, no feelings, no movement, no eating, just nothingness."
Intelligent bacteria: "We don't want to die! We want to eat, we want to be happy! How can we not die?!"
The intelligent bacteria had used so many exclamation marks; this was the first time they had shown such strong emotion.
Jiang Ye: "Bacteria die when their lifespan ends, it is determined by their genes. To not die, you must modify your genes."
The intelligent bacteria dispersed.
Jiang Ye waited silently.
He had expected these intelligent bacteria to ask further questions, such as how to modify genes or what modifications to make.
But to his surprise, after waiting for a long time, no new questions appeared.
Jiang Ye didn't think much of it and returned to the bedroom to sleep.
One o'clock in the morning.
Jiang Ye was woken by a phone call.
He grabbed his phone and saw it was Li Nannan.
Jiang Ye sat up abruptly, pressed the answer button.
"Jiang Ye, what happened! The intelligent bacteria farm's alarm has gone off! All the intelligent bacteria are dead! I'm already on my way with people, we'll arrive in an hour!" Li Nannan was furious and berated him immediately.
Jiang Ye was stunned. "Dead? That's impossible, I was chatting with them before I went to sleep?"
Li Nannan hung up the phone directly.
Cen Yemeng was startled awake and sat up, looking at him with concern. "What happened?"
"The intelligent bacteria we were raising are dead, and Li Nannan is coming. It's nothing, you go back to sleep," Jiang Ye said, stroking her face.
He changed his clothes, went downstairs, and headed straight to the farm.
As soon as he entered, a pungent smell of alcohol hit him, making him dizzy.
The indicator lights overhead were all red, bathing the wine vats in a crimson glow, like a pool of blood.
A dense layer of white intelligent bacteria particles floated on the surface of the "blood water," like a sack of rice dumped in, or countless maggots.
Jiang Ye squatted down to look. Each particle was lifeless, devoid of any activity, and many were broken.
A battlefield of corpses, a gruesome sight!
It shouldn't be like this?
The wine environment was normal, the temperature was fine, so why were they all dead?
Jiang Ye felt a pang of sadness, as if he had lost a pet. After all, he had conversed with these bacteria and watched them multiply and thrive for a while; he had developed some affection for them.
Soon, military spacecraft descended.
Li Nannan, accompanied by a group of robots, entered the farm.
They retrieved the intelligent bacteria, collected air samples, and extracted farm data.
While the robots were busy, Li Nannan lectured Jiang Ye, like a dean disciplining a student.
"What's going on! You managed to kill an entire vat of intelligent bacteria! These bacteria are easier to raise than wild grass, more resilient than cacti! And you messed it up like this?"
"After I trusted you so much and gave you this one precious opportunity, you've turned it into this! Do you have any shame?!"
"Two hundred and eighty billion worth of resources, wasted just like that! Burning the zither and boiling the crane! A terrible waste of talent!"
Jiang Ye had kept his head bowed, but now he weakly looked up and asked, "Um... do I need to pay for this?"