Origin

President Wang's voice was full of shock. Wu Zhongyuan couldn't hear what was said on the other end of the phone, but he was sure it was not good.

"One more pair or one? Which two? Don't say anymore. Fax the report to me, by the way, bring back the blood samples sent for inspection." President Wang said and hung up the phone.

He did not hide it and said directly to Wu Zhongyuan's puzzled face "Your blood test results are out."

President Wang picked up his mobile phone and took a picture of the tattoo on Wu Zhongyuan's chest before walking out of the room "I'll go get the inspection report right away. You may take a seat for a while, I'll be back soon."

After President Wang left, Wu Zhongyuan looked at Director Li and Nurse Zhang. Although the two tried to remain calm, he could still see that they were nervous.

"Director Li." Wu Zhongyuan looked at the lady doctor whose eyes shook in panic when she heard him calling her.

"The 24 pairs that President Wang mentioned are chromosomes?" Wu Zhongyuan asked again. Director Li did not answer, but her surprised expression showed what Wu Zhongyuan guessed was right.

Wu Zhongyuan calmed down when he knew he was right and said "It's not hard to guess, except for chromosomes, other inspection items don't seem to be described as 'pair'. Besides, this is a county hospital, except for DNA, everything else can be checked here."

After Wu Zhongyuan finished, Director Li said unnaturally, "Chromosomes and DNA are not the same concepts, but you don't have to be nervous, cases of chromosomal abnormalities are not uncommon."

"You seem to be more nervous than me," Wu Zhongyuan said vigorously, forcing a smile on his face and continued "If it is a common abnormality, President Wang will not be so surprised." 

Director Li didn't have an answer to his question.

"I'm not a child anymore." Wu Zhongyuan added as a pun, implying don't you dare try to fool me.

President Wang left for longer than Wu Zhongyuan expected. After waiting for more than 20 minutes, he came back with a few pages of fax paper in his hand.

As soon as President Wang entered the door, the three of them nervously looked at him, to be precise, the inspection report in his hand. President Wang did not show the inspection report to Director Li and Head Nurse Zhang, but said to them.

"Will you two excuse us? I want to talk to him alone." President Wang's words are very direct, so Director Li and Head Nurse Zhang had no second word but to leave. But in fact, they don't want to go, at least they don't want to go until they see the inspection report. When they left, President Wang walked to the door and was about to close it, he paused a bit then turned back and said to Wu Zhongyuan.

"It's cool outside, let's go out for a walk."

"Okay." Wu Zhongyuan nodded in agreement, the air in the ward made him feel depressed.

President Wang took off his white coat and went downstairs with Wu Zhongyuan. The driver was still waiting but President Wang waved at him and asked him to leave.

It was not dark yet, but the rush hour to get off work had passed, so the streets were empty. Several vendors were selling cold drinks and fruits at the hospital's entrance, and it was not the time to close their stalls yet. When they saw President Wang, they all stood up and greeted him. President Wang politely nodded at them.

"Zhongyuan, you have to be a bit mentally prepared."

"You want to lock me up?" To lighten the tension in his heart, Wu Zhongyuan was half-joking.

"That won't happen," President Wang shook his head in denial, "but your blood results tests are very strange. I have never seen anything similar."

"My chromosome is abnormal?" Wu Zhongyuan asked. He was only a senior in high school, knowing that there are chromosomes, but it was limited to what he knew.

"Yes" President Wang nodded. There was a library next to the hospital. By this time the library was closed, but President Wang walked up the steps and sat on one of the upper steps. When Wu Zhongyuan joined him, the doctor handed the inspection report.

Wu Zhongyuan looked over the inspection report, several reports were linked together since it was a fax document, and the numbers and words on it were not particularly clear.

Wu Zhongyuan didn't read it in detail, and after a few glances, he returned the inspection report to President Wang, "Tell me about it."

President Wang was very pleased that Wu Zhongyuan trusted him so much, and his sincerity was exchanged for Wu Zhongyuan's trust.

"This sounds complicated, I'll try to keep it simple," President Wang coughed twice, clearing his voice, "Chromosome is a substance in the cell's nucleus, and its main function is to carry genetic information. People's race, blood type, blood relationship and other information are relative to make an accurate judgment, normal chromosomes exist in pairs. Ordinary people have 23 pairs of chromosomes, 22 pairs are shared by males and females, and the remaining pair determines gender."

Wu Zhongyuan did not interrupt when President Wang continued with an explanation, "Common chromosomal abnormalities are usually one more than 23 pairs, that is, 47, and there are many reasons for it. When Parents have diseases, drug abuse, and older childbirth may lead to chromosomal abnormalities.  Chromosomal abnormalities are usually accompanied by intellectual disability and developmental disability..."

President Wang stopped talking when someone came up from the sidewalk below and a cold drink vendor who graciously bought two bottles of mineral water. "President Wang, have some water."

President Wang got up and refused, and the vendor put down the mineral water and went back in a hurry.

\President Wang continued after the vendor left, "I just said that 47 chromosomes are the most common chromosomal abnormality. There are also 48 chromosomes, but they are no longer in pairs. The biggest difference between your situation and previous cases is not much. Two more chromosomes, but the two outside the 23 pairs of chromosomes appear in pairs."

"Why do they appear in pairs?" Wu Zhongyuan eagerly asked.

"Not sure, there are no similar cases for reference in yours." President Wang slowly shook his head.

"You just said that by testing chromosomes, you can determine what nationality a person is." Wu Zhongyuan said.

"Race and ethnicity are not the same concepts," President Wang corrected himself. "Through the test of your normal 23 pairs of chromosomes, it has been determined that you might belong to the narrow sense of Han Chinese ."

"What is a narrow sense of Han Chinese?" Wu Zhongyuan didn't quite understand what he just heard.

"It's the part of Han people whose ancestors have never intermarried with ethnic minorities. The number of these people is not many, but it's not too small." President Wang explained patiently.

A lifted a bit of weight from his heart after listening to President Wang's explanation. "Then what happened to my extra pair of chromosomes?"

President Wang unscrewed a bottle of mineral water and handed it to Wu Zhongyuan, "You lost too much blood. We thought about blood transfusion for you at first. The blood transfusion procedures in regular hospitals are very strict. Before blood transfusion, detailed blood tests are required. The blood samples we tested are collected from your wounds. The test indicators are very different from normal indicators. We have no way to conduct further analysis, so we can only send someone to the provincial capital for testing, to find out the exact cause of your abnormal blood."

When Wu Zhongyuan showed his intention to interrupt, President Wang raised his hand, "Our hospital's testing equipment is not top-notch, and it is impossible to distinguish whether the abnormal components in your blood are inherited or mixed with trauma. Let me give an example of a patient bitten by a mad dog, the blood flowing out of the wound may be mixed with the genetic components of the dog, and at this time, the intervention of more sophisticated testing equipment is required to distinguish it."

"My head was injured by an iron pipe." Wu Zhongyuan said and President Wang nodded.

"These are not important anymore. Now the test results have come out. Your chromosomal abnormality is from the congenital inheritance, and it is not a disease."

"What do you mean?" Wu Zhongyuan wondered.

"You are healthy and normal, but this kind of health and normality is only relative." President Wang commented.

"What is relative?" Wu Zhongyuan was at a loss. President Wang did not answer him immediately, so he stared at the doctor, waiting for a reply.

After contemplating for a long time, President Wang spoke again "The so-called relative means that although your development will be normal, due to the particularity of your genes, if the XY chromosome in your body gets combined with a female's XX chromosome, the offspring might have some unpredictable mutations. "

Wu Zhongyuan was stunned when he heard, "Do you mean that if I get married, the children will be monsters?"

"No, no," President Wang waved his hands again and again in denial, "Mutation is not necessarily bad. It may be good. We must know that we humans have also undergone many mutations in the long evolutionary process."

Accepting so many shocking things all at once, Wu Zhongyuan was a little stunned, and he didn't know what to say for a while.

President Wang patted the young man's shoulder and spoke again "Be strong."

Wu Zhongyuan nodded and took a sip.

"We have also tested the extra pair of chromosomes you have." President Wang informed in an excited tone.

"What's the result?" Wu Zhongyuan asked.

"The two extra chromosomes you have are inherited from your father and mother respectively. These two chromosomes belong to two different unknown organisms, and they do not completely match the gene maps of known species recorded in the province. In addition, cross-species Genetic breeding is also unreasonable in terms of genetics." Even after explaining the results to him, President Wang's face was full of doubts.

Wu Zhongyuan nodded blankly. After tossing around for a day, he was already exhausted "President Wang, can you make it simpler, I'm a little confused."

"I also wanted to answer your question, but I can't figure it out myself. I think it is better to end this conversation today. Let me ask the driver to take you back." President Wang took out his mobile phone and called the driver.

"President Wang, I have another question." Wu Zhongyuan grabbed the doctor's attention once again.

"Why are you being so good to me? You could have hidden these things for me." Wu Zhongyuan said.

"Well, I could've hid it. But I was hoping to gain your trust and cooperation" President Wang honestly admitted, "your situation is extremely rare, and it has high research value for medicine and genetics."

Although President Wang was sincere, Wu Zhongyuan still felt prickly in his heart. After all, being studied as a laboratory specimen is not always a pleasant thing.

Soon, the driver drove over, President Wang stood up and walked down the steps with Wu Zhongyuan "How is your academic performance? The college entrance examination is coming soon, are you preparing for the upcoming test?"

"I'm good." Wu Zhongyuan replied casually.

"Have you thought about the major you want to apply for?" President Wang asked again.

Wu Zhongyuan shook his head. He wanted to apply for the military academy or the police academy so that he wouldn't have to pay the tuition fees. After graduation, he would be an officer or a police officer. Unfortunately, he could only think about it, because neither of these two types of schools would admit candidates with tattoos.

"Go back and pay attention to rest and study with peace of mind. If there is any new progress in the genetic map comparison, I will notify you." President Wang suggested and Wu Zhongyuan nodded in agreement. 

But when he suddenly remembered something, Wu Zhongyuan stopped the doctor with another question."You just said those two extra chromosomes I have don't completely match any known species?"

"Yes." President Wang said.

"Are there any similarities?" Wu Zhongyuan asked.

"I'm assuming that you don't know much about genes," President Wang commented while shaking his head, "Many species have similar genes. Our genes are very similar to those of gorillas. Sometimes just a small genetic difference may lead to huge individual and morphological differences. "

"Oh." Wu Zhongyuan nodded blankly.

When President found that Wu Zhongyuan was very frustrated, he couldn't help but explain more"There is indeed no specific result of the comparison. It is difficult to determine the exact source of these two chromosomes, and we can only determine the type."

"What type?" Wu Zhongyuan asked.