133: The "mischief" of precognition and the troubles of "causality"

With the stable life and systematic learning in "Homeland," Excellence's unique "precognition" ability began to sprout more actively, like a seed nourished by spring rain.

However, this growth did not always bring positive effects.

While he successfully provided early warnings for major events like potential dangers at the energy station, proving the ability's value, it also began to show a side that was both ridiculous and quite troublesome—it became the source of various unexpected "little troubles" and invisible "pranks" in Excellence's daily life.

The core of the problem was that this precognitive ability appeared completely uncontrollably, and its content was highly random, mostly focused on trivial, insignificant trifles.

These premonitions were often sudden, of varying intensity, and felt vague—more like a subconscious, strong intuitive impulse rather than clear images or information.

This often made Excellence's reactions appear overly sensitive or inexplicable, and to bystanders, his behavior became somewhat eccentric and difficult to understand.

A Startling Moment During Leisure Time: Once, Excellence was curled up on the sofa with Su Mu, comfortably watching a popular science documentary about interstellar travel, with a bucket of freshly made, fragrant popcorn at hand.

Just as the plot reached a critical moment where the protagonist's spaceship was about to cross an asteroid belt, Excellence suddenly leaned back sharply without warning, as if dodging an incoming attack, and almost tumbled off the sofa.

Su Mu was startled and hurriedly steadied him, only to find that nothing had happened.

A few seconds later, a particularly well-popped piece of popcorn "popped" with a light sound, bounced out of the bucket, traced an insignificant arc, and landed exactly where Excellence's head had been.

Excellence, still shaken, pointed at the popcorn: "I... I felt like something was going to hit my nose..."

Inexplicable Actions During Study Time: In Evelyn's study, she was patiently explaining a complex formula about quantum tunneling effects to Excellence.

Excellence was listening very intently when, suddenly and for no reason, he reached out his hand and blocked the space above the coffee cup Evelyn had placed on the corner of the table.

Evelyn stopped her explanation in confusion, only to see Excellence's hand hovering in the air for a few seconds.

Then, a dizzy little moth that had flown in from somewhere hit the back of his hand with a soft "slap," struggled a few times, and fell onto the tabletop, avoiding the "tragedy" of falling directly into the coffee cup.

Excellence breathed a sigh of relief: "That was close... I felt like something was going to fall into your cup..."

Stubbornness in Life Choices: Su Mu bought a few pairs of soft, comfortable new socks for Excellence.

When Excellence tried them on, he showed an unusual resistance to one pair of light gray socks and firmly refused to wear them, giving a reason that left people laughing and crying: "This pair of socks... they feel wrong... They seem like they'll tie themselves into knots, and they won't be comfortable to wear."

Su Mu thought he was just being cranky like a child and didn't pay much attention.

As it turned out, when she was organizing the laundry the next day, she accidentally discovered that there was indeed a small, barely noticeable knot at the seam of the label on those socks.

If he had worn them, there would indeed have been a slight foreign body sensation at his ankle.

This discovery left Su Mu dumbfounded.

As these trifles accumulated, Excellence's daily life became filled with unexpected drama and comedic effects.

He might be walking down the hallway when he suddenly made a sharp turn to avoid a drop of water about to leak from the ceiling; he might be eating when he suddenly stopped his chopsticks, stared at a piece of meat for a long time, and finally said the meat "felt like it was cooked a bit too long," only for it to prove true upon tasting; he might even interrupt someone while chatting, saying "You might say the next word wrong," leaving the other person completely bewildered.

Su Mu and Evelyn, from their initial surprise and vigilance, gradually shifted to a habitual sense of helplessness and amusement.

They discovered that while these premonitions were frequent and strange, the vast majority did not involve any danger; they merely added some harmless episodes to life.

They gave this state of Excellence a vivid and somewhat doting nickname— "Passive Crow's Mouth Constitution."

It meant that he didn't actively want to "curse" anything, but was always passively "foreseeing" some trivial little troubles, and quite accurately at that.

However, for Excellence, the person involved, it was far from as easy as it was for the bystanders.

This uncontrollable ability brought him real trouble and anxiety.

The most direct impact was the serious interference with his concentration.

He would be fully focused on thinking about a complex mathematical proof, and just as the key logical chain was about to take shape in his mind, a sudden premonition— "The greens for dinner might be bitter" —would ripple through his mind like a pebble thrown into a calm lake, shattering his rigorous train of thought.

He would be carefully welding a Node of a precision circuit in his workshop, his hand steady as a rock, when he suddenly "saw" a blurry image of his screwdriver slipping and hitting his instep.

His hand would shake, the solder joint would indeed be crooked, and the model would fall to the ground.

This feeling of having his thoughts and actions constantly interrupted made him very frustrated, affecting both his learning efficiency and work quality.

A deeper concern was that this ability began to subtly influence his decision-making psychology.

He became somewhat indecisive, even developing a slight tendency toward compulsive suspicion.

He began to subconsciously scrutinize every tiny decision he made, from "Should I brush my teeth or wash my face first in the morning" to "Which shirt should I wear today," for fear that some unintentional act would trigger a series of bad "premonitions" or chain reactions.

He complained to Su Mu and Evelyn: "Squad Leader, Sister Evelyn, I feel like I'm being kidnapped by 'Causality'! I have to think for a long time about which foot to step with first when I walk, just in case I step on a special anthill, and that ant happens to be an important guard for the queen, and its death triggers unrest in the ant nest, leading the ants to move and destroy the underground fiber optic cable, eventually causing a power outage for the whole district tomorrow!"

This thought, while exaggerated, reflected his true anxiety and showed his inner pressure.

Seeing Excellence's distress, Su Mu and Evelyn realized they couldn't just laugh it off as a fun story; they needed to help him establish a method to coexist with this ability.

They decided to guide him to transform this passive trouble into a "phenomenon" that could be actively observed and managed.

Su Mu approached it more from the perspective of emotional support and life wisdom.

She hugged Excellence's shoulder and comforted him in a relaxed tone: "Silly boy, there's no such thing as an exaggerated butterfly effect! Most things are just like the clouds in the sky, coming and going, without that much connection. You're just too sensitive and scaring yourself. Relax, the sky won't fall!"

She would use examples from life to tell him that many premonitions were just coincidences and didn't need to be taken too seriously.

Evelyn tried to help him analyze it from a more rational and systematic perspective.

She explained to Excellence: "This is very likely your brain subconsciously capturing and amplifying extremely faint clues in the environment that indicate micro-probabilistic events (possibly subtle changes in air humidity, infrasonic components of sound, or even the tiny pre-movements of others' muscles). You need to learn to distinguish which are real 'signals' that are important and involve safety or major events, and which are irrelevant 'background noise.' And establish a psychological firewall for these 'noises' so they don't easily intrude into the forefront of your consciousness."

To put this concept into practice, the two came up with a concrete method: preparing a special "Premonition Logbook" for Excellence.

Every time he had a premonition, no matter how big or small, he was to record it simply, including:

Time: The exact time the premonition occurred.

Content: The specific feeling or the event pointed to (describe as objectively as possible, e.g., "felt like something was falling," rather than "felt like there was danger").

Result: Verify after the fact whether the premonition was accurate, and the actual impact of the event.

Then, at a fixed time each week, the three would sit together and conduct a "review analysis" like a game.

This "Premonition Logbook" was soon filled by Excellence with all sorts of hilarious and bizarre entries, like a supernatural daily diary:

"【Date】 10:05 AM, felt that the third leaf from the top of the pothos on the balcony would fall today. Result: A strong wind blew in the afternoon, and that leaf really fell down shakily. (Conclusion: Useless information, no impact even if it fell.)"

"【Date】 12:30 PM, had a premonition that Engineer Zhang would scare away the sparrows on the windowsill when he sneezed that big sneeze. Result: The sparrow just tilted its head and looked, didn't fly away; but Engineer Zhang choked and coughed for a long time. (Conclusion: Half right? Correlation questionable.)"

"【Date】 7:00 PM, was writing code, suddenly had strong palpitations, premonition that the network would disconnect for a second. Result: Immediately saved all documents, and one minute later the network did indeed flicker! Saved the program I had been writing for two hours! (Conclusion: Useful! Belongs to important early warning!)"

"【Date】 3:20 PM, felt that this cup of tea Sister Evelyn brewed would be a bit bitter than usual. Result: Took a sip, it was indeed a bit bitter, she seemed to have forgotten to put sugar. (Conclusion: Accurate, but belongs to acceptable life fluctuations.)"

Through repeated reviews, Excellence began to examine his premonitions with a calmer eye.

He found that premonitions that were truly strong, lasting, and involved safety, like the energy station warning, were actually very rare.

Most premonitions were "noise" about daily trivialities that were weak, fleeting, and fleeting.

The accuracy of these "noise" premonitions also fluctuated; sometimes they were very accurate, sometimes completely wrong, and sometimes, like "Engineer Zhang's sneeze," only half right.

Su Mu and Evelyn guided him to "classify and qualify" these premonitions and "prioritize" them.

They roughly divided the premonitions into:

Red Alert: Strong discomfort, involving personal safety or important property/data. —＞ Report immediately, highly vigilant.

Yellow Observation: Clear feeling, but the event itself is not important. —＞ Record in the file, pay a little attention, no need to overreact.

Green Noise: Faint feeling, purely trivial. —＞ Laugh it off, actively ignore, practice psychological shielding.

Gradually Mastering: From Disturbance to Seasoning.

This process was like installing a "signal filter" for Excellence's noisy inner world.

Gradually, Excellence's control over his own special ability increased.

He began to be able to consciously distinguish between premonitions of different intensities.

For those faint "green noises," he learned to do as Evelyn taught, whispering "This is background noise" in his heart, and then consciously pulling his attention back to the task at hand, no longer easily distracted by them.

For those "yellow observation" level premonitions, he would record them but would not react exaggeratedly, instead maintaining a "wait and see" observational attitude.

He even began to find joy in the suffering, treating this ability as a unique "life seasoning."

Once, while drinking water, he suddenly had a clear premonition that he would choke on his next sip.

This time, he didn't panic, but instead, with a playful spirit, he held his breath in advance, adjusted the rhythm of his swallowing, and successfully and steadily drank that mouthful of water without choking.

He immediately ran to Su Mu excitedly, showing off triumphantly: "Look, Squad Leader! I can beat my premonition! I anticipated its anticipation!"

That silly and triumphant look made Su Mu unable to hold back a smile, also marking that his mindset was shifting from the anxiety of being enslaved by his ability to a positive state of trying to interact with and even play with it.

This process of grinding and getting along with the "precognition" ability, although full of ridiculous little episodes and initial troubles, also became a vivid growth lesson under the wise guidance of Su Mu and Evelyn.

It taught Excellence how to maintain a normal heart while possessing extraordinary talent, how to distinguish between primary and secondary, how to manage his attention, and more importantly, how not to be trapped by the special, and still be able to enjoy the pleasures of ordinary life.

This cultivation in the details laid an important psychological foundation for the greater challenges he might face in the future.