Survival [End Times]

"You can't stay in the water forever." Yu Heng said to Ruiting while eating, "This is the trend, but I'm still alone." He was greedy and hoped that he could evolve into an amphibian instead of staying in the water forever without seeing the sun.

And there was Zhang's mother. He couldn't leave her alone and live away from the crowd in the southern waters. He believed that evolution had a direction, and he could influence that direction. There was no conclusion yet, but he wanted to give it a try.

Ruiting felt a little sad when he saw his calves cracked and bleeding after only five minutes of eating out of the water. "But you're in pain."

"I'm not in pain." After finishing his meal, he washed the bowl and put it outside the door, calling Zhang's mother: "Mom, the bowl is outside, you go to bed first, I'm going to bed too."

Zhang's mother came running from the living room, and when she saw that the bowl was clean, she said to him: "Why are you washing the bowls when you have a good rest...Okay, then go to bed, and call mom when you feel uncomfortable or hungry, okay?"

Yu Heng didn't sleep at night either. He made a schedule for entering and exiting the water, adjusting it according to the seconds, constantly pushing the potential of his body. He lay in the bathtub with the water on, and the water switch was right next to him, but he kept holding back and didn't turn it on.

The scales on his body kept drying, hardening, and cracking, and finally falling off. The pain was no less than pulling out a nail or pricking a finger with a needle, and the pain was particularly sharp.

He was a patient person, and he took out his mobile phone to recite the book. His eyes went black for a while, and his brain was like a clapper, but he still insisted on imprinting those words in his mind one by one.

Just like this, we survived the whole winter. This winter was not peaceful. The first case of adult mutation appeared, which caused a sensation in the news. Then, before the first month of the year was over, there was the second case, the third case... Under the continuous bombardment, food safety became the focus again, and the r-substance filter was questioned for being ineffective.

In fact, this is obvious. R-substance exists in the water. You don’t know whether there is r-substance in the water you hold up. You can filter it through equipment before entering the water and before irrigation. But where r-substance comes from has not been determined yet. In addition to eating, will other ways also have an effect?

Maybe a drop of rain from the sky just slides into your mouth. Is there r-substance in it?

These questions cannot be thought about in detail. People raised doubts, and the Academy of Sciences only said that no conclusions had been drawn. In fact, the Academy of Sciences has long concluded that r-substance comes from rainwater and can be affected by eating and contact.

Although the Academy of Sciences has concluded through a series of data studies that r-substance is the key to the future evolution of mankind, it is obvious that not everyone agrees. The conservative idea is to regard r-substance as a flood and beast, while the radical idea can refer to the so-called fish god cult.

And there is a reality that cannot be ignored: the current mutation situation of newborns is not optimistic. They are like the first batch of people who try it, but they have not made good progress. The research on r-substance has always been stuck in a bottleneck. In order to avoid public panic and let some people with bad intentions take the opportunity to cause trouble, the authorities have been weakening the impact of r-substance over the years, and the research progress is also in a highly confidential stage.

In short, it is inevitable, so it is better to hide it and let nature take its course!

"If Zhang Hengfu could be controlled without hesitation back then, there would definitely be great progress now. We have delayed it for a full four years! Otherwise, we can be four years ahead of other countries!"

Bullshit! Anyone with a brain will not agree with this statement. How can scientific research be accomplished in one fell swoop? Can it be related to the future just by an experimental subject?

But some people agree. After all, the experiment has made no progress, and those research institutes are going crazy. Now that adult cases have appeared, the Academy of Sciences seems to have been injected with fresh blood and has become active all of a sudden.

What followed was a series of calls from the authorities, accompanied by high welfare policies, encouraging people to go to local hospitals for physical examinations on their own initiative. If they are willing to cooperate with the relevant research of the Academy of Sciences, they will receive extremely generous treatment, and may even be allocated a new house in the fifth phase of the water city under construction.

People are boiling!

Zhang's mother was worried, but she trusted her son very much. Her son gave up everything to leave, and now she would not say that he should go for treatment. Although she was worried to death, what would happen to her son's future without the diagnosis and treatment of a regular hospital?

Will he turn into a fish? Will he forget her? She remembered that she could swim again with a swollen head! Hey, I can swim!

She got excited all of a sudden, and her eyes lit up! If her son turned into a fish, she would row a boat to accompany her son to live in the water area in the south. If the water temperature was high in summer, she could also swim with her son and accompany him all the time so that he would not be lonely.

Thinking of this, Zhang's mother was no longer anxious. In fact, she had another idea, why did she not even grow flesh scales on her body starting this year? If she continued to grow, she could be the same person as her son.

Zhang's mother couldn't help but think of the Fish God Cult. They said they could help people evolve... "No, no." She shook her head immediately. Her son said that those were all lies and couldn't be believed. It was not until later that she saw the news and learned that there were now cases of adults becoming fish-like. She felt a little hopeful in her heart - if there were many such people in the future, wouldn't she and her son be "normal"?

Yu Heng didn't know that Zhang's mother had planned so much in her heart. He was also paying attention to the news, and naturally saw the first case of adult fish-like.

Regardless of whether this was the first case, that person was the first adult to enter the public eye.

"In the past five years." He silently calculated that without the effect of the gene-modifying fluid, the local adults had changed five years later. This made him reassure himself that the changes in himself were in line with the development trend. If all went well, he would be the first adult to successfully transform.

Unfortunately, Zhang's mother may have stopped the process of evolution due to her age.

"I will definitely make it through." Yu Heng was very determined. During the four months he stayed in the bathroom, he tried everything. He took an extra dose of gene-repairing fluid, practiced fitness exercises, and did acupuncture...

The scales on his body cracked and fell off and regenerated, and his legs, which tended to grow together, were torn in the constant pulling. To this day, they still look like legs and can stand and walk.

Later, the power of evolution finally gave up and transformed his legs separately. Now when he is in the water, he looks like two slender fish tails. When he stands on the ground, he can see the obvious shape of his feet. He still stands tall when he puts on pants and large plastic waterproof shoes.

When he finally came out of the bathroom, it was summer.

Yu Heng's appearance didn't seem to have changed, no scales or scars, but he looked much younger?

Zhang's mother asked hesitantly: "Son, how come I see you getting younger? I can't tell from the video."

"Maybe you've turned white from covering yourself up, and whiteness makes you look younger." Yu Heng smiled: "Mom, you're a little older, don't worry, I'm fine."

Zhang's mother looked older than in the video. She had been living a strong life for more than half a year, but her worry about her son still made her older. "You kid! Why don't you let me take care of you..." She hugged Yu Heng and cried.

He could only pat her back to comfort her. Zhang's mother had indeed gotten older and lost a lot of weight, but he couldn't let her see him. For more than half a year, he looked bloody and horrible almost every day. He was fighting against the power of evolution and didn't look like a human at all. He couldn't imagine if Zhang's mother would faint from a surge in blood pressure when she saw him, and then stop him from self-harming...

In any case, it wasn't what he wanted. It would be better to video chat with her every few days when he was in a good condition, and show her face to make her feel at ease.

After Yu Heng came out, Zhang's mother's complexion improved at a visible speed within just half a month, and she gained back the weight she lost a month later.

But she had to go to Yu Heng's bedroom at midnight every night to see him, and she would go to bed at ease only when she saw that he was sleeping well. Therefore, he was very honest in the past month, going to bed at 8 o'clock in the evening, and not practicing the general rules of physical fitness. He slept until dawn. He was energetic and Zhang's mother was in a good mood.

Soon, the good time for fattening in autumn passed, and winter came. The Zhang family's life has returned to normal again, and Zhang's mother has put planting on the agenda.

Yu Heng went to the boathouse to see the yacht and maintained it again. Of course, he walked there, and his bones hurt with every step. When he walked home, Zhang's mother saw him and smiled: "You can eat now."

"Drink bone soup today. I see that you always kick your legs when you sleep recently. Are your legs cramped?"

"I seem to be growing taller." Yu Heng said honestly.

"I told you, even if I get shorter when I get older, it won't be so obvious! You've really grown taller!"

After dinner, Zhang's mother quickly measured his height: "... 1.83 meters, you've grown 6 centimeters!" Oh, this is an old tree sprouting new buds! The fifty-year-old son has really grown taller.

Zhang's mother was instantly filled with joy and relief, and the look she gave Yu Heng was no different from the look she gave a five-year-old child. "I'll make bone soup for you tomorrow!"

Well, the old lady was in a good mood, and Yu Heng could eat anything, anyway, bone soup was delicious.

"Will the host extend his lifespan?" Ruiting flew out and circled around him, commenting seriously: "I think the host looks like he's in his thirties now, young and handsome!" Yu Heng was amused: "Fifty-three years old is still handsome?"

"Of course not! Tall, thin, and pale-faced, hey, let me see, there are no wrinkles! The host has double eyelids!"

Yu Heng smiled.

The Zhang family lived a peaceful and warm life, but the winter of that year was unusual. A large number of sharks appeared in the waterlogged areas in the south, and the shortest one was three meters long. A large number of sea fish were injured and died, and they temporarily retreated to the north. At the same time, the supply of fresh fish was greatly reduced, and the appearance of sharks caused great losses to the fishing industry.

Therefore, the price of the ingredient that symbolizes "abundance every year" during the Spring Festival this year finally rose. Zhang's mother bought a big and lively one, and spent nearly two hundred yuan.

"It's expensive."

It's expensive, but we still have to celebrate the New Year. Zhang's mother muttered a few words and went to cut the fish and steam it skillfully.

At the reunion dinner on New Year's Eve, Zhang's mother gave Yu Heng a big red envelope: "You, my child, have suffered so many disasters this year. Mom will give you a big red envelope to bless you with good health and no diseases in the coming year."

"Thank you, Mom."

After the reunion dinner, as usual, it was another stay-up. I thought that tonight would pass smoothly as usual and usher in the new year, but before midnight, Yu Heng suddenly felt a little shaky under his feet.

The shaking was very light, lasting only about four or five seconds. When he was about to run out of the door with Zhang's mother, it had already stopped. Zhang's mother was a little sleepy after staying up all night, and didn't notice anything wrong. She asked him, "Where are you taking me?"

"Mom, it seems like there's an earthquake. Let's go downstairs first."

After going downstairs, they found that many people were standing in the corridor wrapped in coats. "It's raining and snowing. Where can we go?"

Yu Heng and Zhang's mother were already dressed warmly. He was a little worried: "Let's go to the square and wait."

"Okay."

The two of them went to the square with umbrellas.