Chapter 90: The Enlightened Hippocampus sends You
Chapter 90
Memories are a kind of human mental activity, and any mental activity has its physiological mechanism. For memories, there are two very important physiological organs: the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex in the brain.
Whether or not these material organs are mature in development largely determines the quality of their memory function.
In general, the capacity of short-term memory is 5-9 units of information, but for children under 6 years old, their short-term memory capacity is only 4-6 units of information.
This leads to the phenomenon that when people try to recall events from early in their lives, they often can't remember clear details, commonly known as childhood amnesia.
But Shen Wu was different. He could remember things that happened to himself from very, very early on.
At that time he couldn't yet speak. His dad brought a particularly beautiful bowl for his mom, telling her to eat first instead of holding the child and playing with him.
He thought the bowl in his mom's hand looked nice, so he reached out to grab it, and even snatched his mom's spoon and directly took a mouthful. His dad and mom laughed loudly, and he also ate it very happily.
This was one of the few warm scenes in Shen Wu's memories.
And the reason this phenomenon occurred was because Shen Wu was able to use the right side of his brain for memories from a young age.
The right brain relies on pictorial memories, and Shen Wu turned the scenes from when he was little into a picture, leaving it in the hippocampus of his own brain.
It was also because of this that the expressions on those aunties' faces when they saw him wearing a skirt were still unbearable for him to recall even now.
He asked his mother more than once why those aunties looked at him with such strange eyes when they saw him go into the bathroom.
But his mother just matter-of-factly answered, "Then we won't use public bathrooms anymore."
When he was four years old, his little sister was two years old and had reached the age where she could be dressed up.
From then on, he no longer needed to wear skirts, but instead switched to ordinary shirts and pants. He no longer needed to deliberately mispronounce words cutely, but could just stay silent.
However, he also no longer talked with his mom and dad like before. Their attention was completely focused on his little sister.
Eldest brother said he could only use the men's bathroom from now on, and couldn't go into the women's bathroom anymore. He remembered it.
Eldest brother said he was a boy and needed to keep his distance from girls. He remembered it.
Eldest brother said he needed to start getting used to living alone. If he really couldn't get used to it, he could go to the company. He remembered it.
But eldest brother didn't tell him how he could regain his parents' gaze.
Shen Wu felt confused seeing his mother talk to her puppy every day but be unwilling to talk to him.
Why was this?
He compared the differences between himself and the puppy, and thought what he was lacking must be its furry coat.
So he found a knife, and went in front of the puppy. As long as he had fur like the puppy, then his mother would like him.
Shen Wu thought of the smile that appeared on his mother's face when she stroked the puppy. He started without any hesitation.
He was already very familiar with the physical structure of dogs, and was confident he could completely get what he wanted.
But in the end Shen Wu didn't succeed. He was stopped by the auntie who took care of the dog, and she also called over eldest brother.
After eldest brother understood what he was trying to do, he explained to him for half an hour why he couldn't do this. But Shen Wu didn't understand, and could only stiffly commit this to memory that he shouldn't do this.
He had memorized this for so many years now. Eldest brother had him copy his previous list of problems again each time he made the same mistake.
Oh, sometimes when eldest brother was furious he would also make him copy it more times, like today, 20 times, the historical high.
As Shen Wu injected the medicine into Shen Jize, he observed Shen Jize's reactions.
Shen Jize's body had two problems:
His wounds could not heal on their own, and his sensation of pain was 2-3 times that of a normal person.
These appeared to be two symptoms caused by abnormalities in blood clotting and nerve inflammation, but they were actually caused by one illness.
This also meant that medication and treatments which could separately cure or alleviate these two symptoms actually had no effect on Shen Jize.
And by chance, Shen Jize's illness was also extremely rare globally, arguably a unique case, with no definitive conclusion yet on the medical name.
Whether medicine could be researched to completely cure it was even more uncertain.
Luckily, at the age Shen Jize could still alleviate symptoms with normal medicine, Shen Wu had already displayed talent in medicine, and was exceptionally taken in as a closed-door disciple by a supposedly formidable doctor to learn by his side.
Although Shen Wu was only 14 years old now, he could already formulate corresponding palliative medicine for Shen Jize's illness.
It should be said, Shen Wu also only cared about Shen Jize's illness. His reason for agreeing to be that old man's disciple was this reason as well.
"Shen Wu, you and your family have underestimated your talent. I dare to assert that if someone can completely cure your elder brother in the next 20 years, that person will definitely be you."
Just this one line successfully turned Shen Wu's interest into a career he would devote his whole life to developing.
Shen Wu unintentionally recalled the past, but his actions were still extremely calm as he precisely injected the medicine into Shen Jize's buttocks.
Shen Yue was still pondering beside him. Since it was an injection in the butt, then the injuries on fourth brother's back must have been taken to use for experiments... before she could finish thinking, her eyes were already covered by Shen Yichen's hand.
"Shen Yue, you're 12 years old now. No peeping on improprieties."
Shen Yue blinked. She didn't speak.
And Shen Yichen felt an itchiness transmitted to his palm. He inexplicably felt like he understood Shen Yue's meaning.
She wanted to watch anyway.
Injections in the butt were painful to begin with. Shen Jize's sensation of pain was even stronger than normal people's. Even though Shen Wu was extremely careful, he still hurt Shen Jize awake.
After waking up, Shen Jize didn't struggle or speak. His body just shook slightly.
Even without Shen Jize turning around, Shen Wu knew his fourth brother must be crying again. He still hadn't figured out what was wrong with fourth brother's body that made him cry so easily. Maybe his skills still weren't good enough.
After the injection, Shen Wu took out another small package from somewhere, and pulled out a small test tube from inside. He turned over the Shen Jize with his back facing him, and upon seeing Shen Jize was indeed crying, he paused briefly before using the test tube to collect some of Shen Jize's tears.
While Shen Wu was doing this, his peripheral vision unintentionally fell on Shen Yue. When he discovered Shen Yue's entire body emitted an air of ease, his heart felt somewhat strange.
Shen Yue's reaction was incorrect. It shouldn't be like this.
While feeling it was odd, Shen Wu also drew some blood from himself with a needle, then injected it into Shen Jize's veins.
When Shen Yue pushed away eldest brother's hand and saw this scene, her gaze narrowed slightly.
Test subject.
Who was whose test subject.
How annoying. Don't want to think about it anymore. Whatever.
"Eldest brother, I want pudding."
"Go get it from the fridge yourself."
"I don't want to walk."
"Shen Yue."
Eldest brother yelled at her.
So Shen Yue shifted her small steps, still only able to slowly make her way to get the pudding herself.
Shen Wu's focused gaze fell on the syringe again. He didn't pay Shen Yue any more attention.