"Stop." At the gate of the city, which was guarded by a whole column of six-fingered policemen 24 hours a day, a young man on duty beckoned to Tong Bi'an, who was shrunken in his eyes, and asked in a language that he didn't seem to understand, "You're not from the city, are you?" What about the documents? ”

Tong Bi'an didn't fully understand, so he could only look at Gu Lan behind him for help.

"I'm sorry, we just passed by here by chance this time, and we don't have your papers." Gu Lan stepped forward and dutifully undertook the translation work for the new day, "May I ask what happened?" The last time I visited, the sentry at the door was basically just pretending. ”

The young-looking six-fingered policeman looked at her carefully for a moment, and his expression relaxed slightly: "You've been here before?" You're supposed to be human, right? ”

"The last time I came here with my teachers, it was probably ...... Eight or nine years ago. Gu Lan tried her best to put the facts close to the other party, "I was born and raised in Wenyue City in the north, and I can be said to have been with you since I was a child...... Any questions? ”

It is estimated that her accent is more convincing. The six-fingered policeman obviously hesitated, then pointed to Tong Bi'an and Yuan Sui who were following her, and asked, "What about the two of them?" ”

"It's a friend who travels with me. Also human, ordinary human. Gu Lan emphasized a little weakly.

Yuan Sui probably deduced from the policeman's posture that he was now at the center of the topic, and immediately mobilized the alien vocabulary he had studied all night to answer: "You see it's not too early. If you refuse to let us into town, the three of us will have to spend the night in the wilderness tonight. Now it's hot and there are a lot of mosquitoes, can you ......?"

"Why did you choose to go out at this time?" Although she had long thought that her harmless face was more advantageous, the attitude of the six-fingered policeman was much kinder than she imagined, and the concern in her tone sounded a little sincere, "I heard that it's not very peaceful outside now, you three children should go back to their respective homes as soon as possible." ”

"Then tonight—" Gu Lan winked desperately at it, trying to look a little more naïve.

The six-fingered policeman looked at the three of them carefully for a while, but he reached out and touched his pocket, pulled out a few small pieces of iron that looked unremarkable, and motioned for them to pin this thing to their collars.

"What's that? Identification markings? Yuan Sui muttered quietly, "Will you be beaten up if you wear this kind of thing on the street?" ”

Unexpectedly, the policeman glanced at her and replied in the most standard Mandarin: "That's not true." In the early years, when we had a better relationship with you, the innkeeper might have looked at the discount. ”

Yuan Sui's heart suddenly rose up a sense of embarrassment of saying bad things behind his back, and he was caught red-handed. She scratched at her hair embarrassedly and forced a dry laugh, glad she hadn't said anything more unkind just now.

"But for now, your worries are not entirely unreasonable." The six-fingered policeman sighed leisurely, and his gray eyes revealed a little pity that could even be described as "gentle", "If it really doesn't work, it's okay not to put it in your sleeve, but you are not allowed to take it off until you leave the city, we have to rely on this to know your position at any time." ”

"Okay." Gu Lan nodded vigorously, pinned the piece of iron in front of the other party, and then continued to obediently stop in place and wait for the next command.

"Alright, it's up to me what I'm doing, let's go in." The six-fingered policeman beckoned, his eyes were still staring at the stupid faces of the three of them because of their nervousness, he suddenly laughed, and reminded, "If you have money, choose the hotel in the west of the city, the boss will have a better attitude towards you." ”

Until he sat down in a very normally renovated restaurant, Yuan Sui still looked a little surprised.

"What's wrong with you? The soul is not guarded. Tong Bi'an leaned on the reference image to choose the dish and whispered to her, "Miss Yuan, don't tell me that that the battle just now scared you." ”

Hearing the ridicule of the other party when he deliberately emphasized a certain "honorific title", Yuan Sui pursed his mouth, ignored him, and only took out a dictionary from his backpack and continued to sharpen his gun today.

"Look at it, look at people's learning attitude, Tong Bi'an, don't you feel ashamed?" Gu Lan pinched a chopstick and knocked it on the table, "If you really talk about it, the foundation of the past is not as good as yours, but what about just now?" She can intervene in my conversation with Six Fingers, and you can still play dumb on the side. ”

"Don't get me wrong, I just memorized a lot of example sentences in the dictionary, and I don't really understand what you and that policeman said before." Yuan Sui intimately corrected.

"Don't, I just wanted to inspire him with your deeds, don't you dismantle the stage so quickly." Gu Lan pretended to look at her, and then stretched out her hand at Tong Bi'an, "Do you understand the lady first?" Why are you alone looking at the menu? ”

"It's not like I don't know what you like to eat and what you don't like to eat." Tong Bi'an said it rightly.

"What if I just want a change of taste today?"

Yuan Sui sighed, covered his ears with his hands, and said with a sad face: "Can you two consider my feelings as a single person, and don't exude the sour smell of love all day long, okay?" ”

"Nothing." Gu Lan stuck out her tongue and asked cheekily, "Are you still single?" I always thought you and your boss were a couple. ”

Yuan Sui's movement of turning the book slowly stopped, raised his eyes and asked seriously: "Have I ever told him a lot of things related to him before you meet?" ”

"No, you don't mention it often, except for occasionally praising him as an advanced individual in the gifted world." Gu Lan pushed a plate of fried peanuts in front of her, "But from the first time I met the two of you, I could see that the seemingly simple superior-subordinate relationship between you and him would definitely slowly deteriorate." ”

"Why?" Yuan Sui recalled, "When we first met, the boss and I didn't-"

She pondered everything that had happened since she met Ling Shucheng, and suddenly she couldn't say any more.

"What's wrong?" Gu Lan picked up a few peanuts, "I'm still waiting for you, how can you make excuses." Don't think about it, he must have always liked you very much, but he didn't necessarily confess it thickly......"

"No, he's actually quite thick-skinned in this regard." Yuan Sui also drew a pair of chopsticks and replied without changing his face.

"Hey, I'll just say it." Gu Lan looked at her somewhat erratic demeanor, and was shocked again, "Wait, don't tell me, you really didn't feel any ...... before he made it clear to you?" ”

"What if I say 'yes', what do you want to say, scold me for being clever and a little sluggish at critical moments?" Yuan Sui glanced at her, "I'm really sorry to disappoint you, I can't maintain IQ and EQ in every aspect, otherwise I would have been tired to death by life." ”

"No, it's not." Gu Lan's tone was full of incredulity, "Mainly I think he really behaved obviously?" Can you continue to play stupid? ”

"I'm not pretending to be stupid, I'm really stupid, okay." Yuan Sui just fell back to the book, and suddenly kicked the table leg under the table with a big movement, and added a little irritably, "The main thing is that he has been very good to me from the beginning, everything happened too naturally......"

"Oh. The sour smell of love. Gu Lan threw the peanuts into her mouth with a tense face, and couldn't help but laugh after a while.

Realizing that he could no longer sink his mind to recognize the crooked words of the six fingers, Yuan Sui closed the book hard, and said angrily: "Okay, when I reunite with the boss, I will definitely lead him to show off in front of you every day." She glared at Tong Bi'an, who was covering her mouth and snickering diagonally opposite, revealing a polite smirk, "It's time to have a naked comparison, you must not dislike your family's low EQ." ”

The three of them laughed softly for a few more minutes, causing the waiter to turn back frequently after serving the food. Yuan Sui looked at the layout of the store, and his expression gradually converged.

"Sister Gu, I'll ask you something again." She abruptly changed the subject, "When you used to live in the city of Six Fingers, did you ever meet the so-called 'mixed race'?" ”

"Like the major general we ran into last time? Not really. Gu Lan shook her head, "Seriously, I can't believe it now...... He didn't get us, did he? ”

"There's no need for him to lie to us about this kind of thing. Even if we try to lower our wariness of him, we will not tell such a lie that sounds unbelievable. Yuan Sui's expression was not very relaxed, "But if he really tells the truth, do you know what it means?" ”

"Does it mean that the kinship between 'humans' and 'six fingers' is closer than we think?"

"Yes." Yuan Sui's finger tapped on the table, "What else?" ”

"And?" Gu Lan was stunned by her question, "You better say it directly, I definitely don't think as much." ”

"Okay, then I'll ask a different way." Yuan Sui's eyes were bright, "How do you define 'human'?" ”

"Huh?" Gu Lan turned her head and looked at Tong Bi'an, "Human ...... It's just 'us'. ”

"Don't describe it so emotionally, be objective." Yuan Sui was distracted, and the peanuts she had just caught fell to the ground, but she didn't care, "For example, we are basically mammals with five fingers on each hand, so that's fine." ”

"Oh. That...... A mammal with two eyes, a nose and a mouth? Is that okay to summarize? ”

"It's too much to cover. Many mammals fit your description, and five fingers are relatively a trait. Yuan Sui held out his hand, "I give this example because this is a common way to distinguish us from this group of alien friends. ”

"So what?" Gu Lan still hadn't followed her train of thought.

"So? So the problem is huge. Yuan Sui put his five fingers together and clenched them into a fist, "I've read some books from the past. In the era when artificial amniotic fluid technology was not yet widespread and newborns could only be born from the female womb, the concept of 'newborn screening' or 'premarital physical examination' was not popularized in some relatively poor areas. In other words, there are still deformed children born in this world occasionally. ”

"Can you be more direct and take care of my level of education." Tong Bi'an listened in great pain.

"Okay." "I mean, in fact, among humans, there are individuals who have more than five fingers per hand. ”

Without giving Gu Lan a chance to interrupt, she showed a somewhat strange smile: "In other words, in the human world a hundred years ago, the existence of 'Six Fingers' should have referred to a physiological deformity, and should not be associated with extraterrestrial visitors. But if we lose this characteristic that divides us from them, what else can we use to define this group of aliens? Gray eyes? There are also Caucasian people who meet this characteristic. ”

was grabbed by the inexplicable coldness, and Gu Lan's whole person suddenly began to tremble slightly. She grabbed Tong Bi'an's wrist, who was still out of the situation, and there was some obscure emotion in her eyes.

"You may have thought of it by now." Yuan Sui propped his chin with his hands, "Let's make a crazy assumption. If one day in the future, this kind of gene that already exists in human genes suddenly expands all over the world, and this group of appearances that has lived with us for many years does not have the 'reproductive isolation' we thought there was between it and humans...... So is there any difference between us? Or, how else can we be distinguished from them? ”

"I can't answer your question." Gu Lan's eyes flickered, "But...... I've actually heard similar theories to your description a long time ago. ”

"From Six Fingers?"

"Yes." Gu Lan bit her lip uncomfortably.

Yuan Sui looked at her appearance, and a flash of inspiration suddenly flashed in his mind: "You chose to let go of that ...... before The professor is also related to this theory, right? ”

Gu Lan reacted for a few seconds before realizing what she was talking about, and nodded stiffly again.

"That's right." Yuan Sui clapped his hands, "I'll just say, you don't look like a person who will drop that kind of big chain at a critical moment." ”

"So what the hell are you two talking about?" The parts that could be understood became less and less, and Tong Bi'an couldn't help but interrupt.

"A philosophical proposition of great significance, something like 'Who am I?'" Yuan Sui behaved as relaxed as he could, and by the way, he stretched out a hand and pressed it on Gu Lan's cold wrist, "Don't be nervous." I'm not trying to settle accounts with you. ”

"So, what do you mean?" Gu Lan even her eyelashes were trembling unconsciously.

"Tell me more about all the six fingers you've been exposed to over the years, their attitudes towards humans, and how they perceive humans and their similarities." Yuan Sui looked into her eyes, "This is important. Especially now that I'm getting more and more shaken. ”

"Shaken? What are you shaking? Tong Bi'an asked.

"Look around you. The architectural decoration, the dishes, the uniforms and manners of the waiters ...... "Yuan Sui took a deep breath, "In addition to the difference in language, there is a difference in appearance by less than one percent...... What else can completely separate us from them? Today is my first Jinru Six Fingers city, and to be honest, everything is far from what I expected. ”