Chapter 153: Left‑Handed? Right‑Handed?

When Zheng Tan arrived, that person was working, with several books spread open on the desk, basically the same as last time.

After placing a cup of warmed milk in front of Zheng Tan, that person sat back down at the desk and resumed work.

Zheng Tan looked at the paper cup holding the milk in front of him; it was freshly taken from its packaging bag, which was one reason Zheng Tan had a good impression of that person—the person never used a dirty cup for milk, even though Zheng Tan now looked like an ordinary cat.

After finishing the milk, Zheng Tan did not disturb that person, and walked around the room.

Compared to last time, a new pencil drawing had appeared on the bookshelf in the room, with little color, depicting several children surrounded by wintersweet blossoms; the lower right corner bore a date, that of the day before yesterday.

Zheng Tan was looking at it when the doorbell rang.

The visitor was a boy about the same age as Jiao Yuan, holding a paper box that had once contained small cakes, now filled entirely with wintersweet flowers.

"La Mei Shu, here, these are picked from the branches that those little brats broke today," the boy said, seemingly unaware while saying "little brats" that he himself was not much older.

"La Mei Shu?" That address made Zheng Tan curious—was it because this person liked drinking wintersweet flower tea, or was his name actually La Mei? Calling a grown man La Mei seemed a bit odd.

The boy took the bag of lollipops that La Mei Shu handed over as a reward, scratched his head somewhat embarrassedly, thanked him, and left.

The "La Mei Shu" whom the boy referred to carried the box of wintersweet flowers into the room, set it aside, and seeing Zheng Tan staring at the box, smiled and said: "Many kids in the neighborhood like to climb and break branches, especially the wintersweet that's still in bloom; I tell them that if they accidentally snap a branch, they should pluck the flowers from it and give them to me."

Zheng Tan understood—no wonder La Mei Shu's room had so many wintersweet flowers; he guessed those kids deliberately broke some off to trade for lollipops, and La Mei Shu probably knew but didn't call them out.

"That drawing is the one I made when they came over the day before yesterday," La Mei Shu said, pointing at the pencil sketch Zheng Tan had just seen.

Zheng Tan was actually even more puzzled. Although La Mei Shu seemed gentle in dealing with people and rather close to children, he usually spoke little when talking to others, yet could say so much to a cat.

Another strange person.

Indeed, pet cats, dogs, and similar animals always manage to let people relax their mental guard.

While speaking, La Mei Shu took out paper and pen again, watching Zheng Tan begin to draw.

His technique was very practiced. Zheng Tan watched as black lines on the white paper quickly outlined a picture taking shape. However, Zheng Tan suddenly noticed……

This guy was actually drawing with his left hand!!

Left-handed?

If Zheng Tan remembered correctly, when La Mei Shu wrote earlier he used his right hand!

The last time Zheng Tan crouched on the desk, he had seen La Mei Shu write. At that time Zheng Tan wondered, being able to produce those scraps of paper and sticky notes on the drawing board with their scribbly "English cursive" like ghostly talismans, what his ordinary handwriting was like? The result was that his writing was still quite normal, after which Zheng Tan didn't pay much more attention.

Now, combining the present situation, this guy might be left-handed, but not necessarily purely left-handed. Among the people Zheng Tan knows, he is the first who uses left and right hand with equal fluency, feeling no awkwardness when moving his hands.

With the air conditioner on, the room was warm; Zheng Tan, crouched there, felt a bit drowsy and dozed off a little.

Ten minutes later, a simple pencil drawing was completed. Zheng Tan yawned, stretched, and looked over.

The drawing showed a black cat crouched beside the box holding the wintersweet flowers, its head slightly tilted, its eyes seeming to carry a hint of doubt.

La Mei Shu stared at the drawing in his hand for a moment, then looked at Zheng Tan and said, "I've heard that many animals have spirituality; are you one of them?"

Zheng Tan did not answer, nor could he.

La Mei Shu didn't really expect an answer from a cat's mouth; he had only asked because seeing the cat's eyes gave him a sudden strong sense of strangeness, and after speaking he realized that facing him was just a cat that couldn't talk, so he merely smiled.

Zheng Tan felt somewhat bewildered; indeed, there are not a few neurotics who talk to themselves to a cat.

Placing the drawing in his hand and the one of the children into a folder, La Mei Shu left the room.

The last time Zheng Tan came, two rooms in the house were shut tight; this time La Mei Shu opened one of them. Zheng Tan went over to take a look; the room wasn't large, apparently soundproofed, its layout simple, the most obvious feature being the upright piano inside.

I didn't expect this person to also be musical.

Zheng Tan jumped onto a nearby stool for holding things; since this person was about to play a piece, he didn't mind acting as an audience member.

After hearing the beginning, Zheng Tan knew the name of the piece La Mei Shu was playing.

"Für Elise," Zheng Tan, although he doesn't usually listen to those so‑called world‑famous pieces, still knows this one—it's too famous, and many kids like to play it.

But……

Zheng Tan doesn't know much about piano, but he knows that this person's version differs from the one he's heard before—it's slower, yet not simply the slow‑play method used to teach children, and there seems to be some other factor involved.

Previously, the melody of the "Für Elise" piano piece Zheng Tan had heard was fresher, the rhythm light and smooth; some say piano music makes one feel carefree and delighted. But now, Zheng Tan felt no trace of that carefree delight; instead he felt an inexplicable oppression, even a chill down his spine.

Could it be that the version this person is playing is wrong?

After the piece ended, La Mei Shu sat there motionless, seeming to think about something; Zheng Tan craned his neck to look.

Holy cow!

Can playing a piece of "Für Elise" bring tears to one's eyes?

Zheng Tan expressed that he couldn't understand.

Feeling that the atmosphere was off, Zheng Tan decided to head back home.

On the way back to Chu Hua Da Xue, the affiliated elementary school hadn't let out yet, and Zheng Tan wasn't in a hurry, so he took a detour to the university teaching building to stroll. He happened to hear a debate competition going on in the first‑floor stair‑side classroom, quite lively, with an interesting topic; thus he climbed a tree beside the stair‑side classroom and perched there to listen.

They were freshmen from the medical school, debating whether left‑handed people are geniuses or weaklings.

"The left and right hemispheres of the human brain have different functions; the left hemisphere mainly handles reasoning, logic, and language, while the right hemisphere focuses on the perception of geometric shapes, emotions, imagination, and spatial distance. It has the direct function of judging visual signals……"

The affirmative side argued that left‑handers are somewhat stronger. Many left‑handers in life are intelligent, quick‑witted people, especially in professions requiring imagination and spatial sense, where left‑handers often stand out as the best talents—for example, Mozart, Beethoven, and Bach in music; Caesar and Napoleon in politics and military; Einstein, Newton, etc., in science. Furthermore, they illustrated with the example of "looking at things," contrasting the neural pathway for right‑handers—right brain → left brain → right hand—with that for left‑handers—right brain → left hand—and claimed left‑handers have an advantage in manual dexterity.

The opposing side contended that left‑handers are weaklings in life; otherwise they wouldn't constitute only a small fraction of the huge human population, and as for the left‑ or right‑handedness of those historical figures, the matter remains disputed without sufficient persuasive evidence.

At the same time, the opposing side also cited a new hypothesis proposed by Swiss scientist Dr. Ierwen.

"Ierwen believes that in ancient times, human ancestors had the same probability of using left or right hand as other animals—equal—but because they didn't recognize surrounding plants and mistakenly ate toxic parts, left‑handed people had weak tolerance to plant toxins, ultimately succumbing to the severe impact of those toxins on the central nervous system and finding it hard to survive; whereas right‑handed people, thanks to their stubborn tolerance, eventually gained survival ability in nature.

Moreover, some foreign scientists have also experimentally shown that many left‑handers have poorer autoimmune systems, and even among autistic patients, 65% are left‑handers……

Zheng Tan, perched in the tree, watched the students argue until their faces flushed red; it was somewhat amusing, and if it continued like this it would be no different from a street brawl.

After all, they were just freshmen; most had never taken part in a formal debate before. This debate started with some attention to debate rules, but later became somewhat chaotic; however, the teacher on the podium didn't stop it, instead smiling, because her reason for holding this classroom debate was merely to stimulate the students' interest, and beyond that interest the rules became secondary—after all, it wasn't some grand formal debate occasion.

Finally, the teacher on the podium gave everyone a summary: "In the biological world, only humans and hominids exhibit left‑right handedness, and only humans investigate which side is superior. In fact, up to now many people have studied the differences between left‑ and right‑handers in intelligence, immune capacity, lifespan, and even mental‑illness rates, but the results remain inconclusive……"

It was the latter half of that teacher's sentence that constituted the summary of the whole debate.

Zheng Tan has always felt that debate is just a more refined, pointed quarrel, and the topics of such quarrels are those that have so far had no absolute answer.

What a pain in the egg.

While looking down on those students, Zheng Tan lowered his head to examine his two front paws, lifted a paw and bent it, and suddenly felt a bit dejected—just as that teacher said, aside from humans and hominids, other animals apparently lack left‑right handedness, including Zheng Tan himself now.

Thinking back to when I was still human, I used to be right‑handed, but now… it seems there really isn't much difference! If it weren't for hearing those students debate today, Zheng Tan wouldn't have noticed this change of his.

After thinking over his own change, Zheng Tan then recalled seeing La Mei Shu drawing today. I wonder whether that person is left‑handed? Hmm, next time I go over there for a stroll I'll pay more attention.

Originally Zheng Tan planned to go hang out at La Mei Shu's place on Saturday, but Wei Leng came over to find Zheng Tan and took him to Ye Lou to have fun.

I heard Ye Hao's birthday was a few days ago, but at the time he had a lot on his plate and he himself didn't care much about such a birthday, so he didn't really celebrate it. Since he started those few projects, Ye Hao, Long Qi, and Baizi have gone to Ye Lou much less often; Saturday merely gave everyone an excuse to go to Ye Lou and relax. (To be continued..)

ps: (supplement 2.5)

ps. If any readers discover missing chapters while reading, they can check whether it's an issue with the mobile client; the PC version should be fine.