137: New applications of abilities and "resonance" drawing

That heart-stopping small fire in the studio was like a sudden flash of lightning; though brief, it violently illuminated certain corners deep within Excellence's heart. The flames brought not only smoke and mess, but also a profound emotional tempering and rapid mental growth. As the waves of panic and self-reproach receded, in the warmth of Su Mu's unreserved embrace and Evelyn's firm yet gentle gaze, Excellence felt an unprecedented, heavy sense of security and the relief of being completely accepted. This experience was far more powerful than any verbal sermon.

In the following few days, Excellence became somewhat reticent, but this silence was not depression; it was more like introspection and digestion. He often sat alone in the restored studio, not tinkering with parts, but staring blankly out the window, his fingers unconsciously drawing circles on the desktop. Su Mu was a bit worried and wanted to cheer him up, but was gently held back by Evelyn. Evelyn keenly sensed that Excellence was undergoing an important psychological transformation—he was shifting from a boy who simply enjoyed being protected and occasionally worried about his out-of-control abilities, to truly thinking about the meaning of his existence and the value of his abilities.

"Class Monitor, Sister Evelyn," after dinner one day, Excellence suddenly put down his chopsticks and looked at them with an unusually serious expression, "I've been thinking... all these messy 'feelings' in my head, besides causing trouble and making you worry, what... what can they actually be used for? Is it possible... that they could also be used like a tool to do something... useful?" In his eyes, there was no longer the pure curiosity or occasional frustration of the past, but a mixture of confusion, longing, and a budding sense of responsibility.

This question made Su Mu and Evelyn feel both heartbroken and gratified. Heartbroken because this child had begun to shoulder thoughts that did not belong to his age too early; gratified because he was actively seeking a path to transform "trouble" into "value."

Evelyn seized this educational opportunity. She did not give an answer immediately, but like a mentor guiding an adventure, she began to help Excellence build a cognitive framework for his mysterious experiences.

She chose a sunny afternoon to take Excellence to a quiet corner of the library, spread out paper and pens, and explained in as vivid language as possible: "Excellence, let's try looking at your 'feelings' from a different angle. It might not be metaphysics, but a very, very keen form of Perception. Imagine that this world is full of various 'information patterns' or 'energy textures' that we usually cannot see."

She drew a simple sine wave on the paper. "This is regular sound, or orderly light." Then, she randomly dotted some ink spots on the wave line, "This is noise, or interference." Then, she drew an extremely complex fractal pattern with vaguely repeating patterns, "This is the hidden Order within a complex system, such as the way a tree grows, or the beauty of a mathematical formula." Finally, in one corner of the fractal pattern, she deliberately drew an abrupt, discordant sharp angle, "Look, an 'anomaly' has appeared here, a 'discordant note.' It might mean there is a small problem somewhere in the system, or that a change is about to occur."

She looked at Excellence's eyes, which were half-understanding but full of interest, and continued: "Your brain might be naturally equipped with a super-sensitive 'anomaly pattern detector.' When your consciousness is relaxed, this detector silently scans the surrounding environment in the background. Once it captures an 'anomaly' that is discordant with the background 'pattern'—whether this anomaly comes from a circuit board about to fail, a piece of music with hidden noise, or the subtle tension beneath someone's forced calm—it will send you an alert, which is the intuition or premonition of 'something wrong' that you feel."

This explanation, which compared abstract feelings to "pattern recognition," was like a key that opened a new door for Excellence. He clapped his hands excitedly: "I get it! It's like how I can tell at a glance which piece is misplaced in the Class Monitor's puzzle! Except I'm 'seeing'... the 'puzzle' in the sound, or the 'rhythm' of the machine running!"

"Then," Evelyn suggested, taking the opportunity, "Since this kind of 'feeling' is often related to shapes, rhythms, and patterns, can we try a method to take these 'patterns' you 'see' or 'hear' inside, and use the most direct way—to draw them out? We aren't aiming for realism; we are only aiming to draw that 'sense of Resonance' or 'sense of discord.' It's like installing an 'output interface' for your intuition."

This suggestion made Excellence's eyes light up. Drawing! This was an activity he had liked since he was a child, but was always discouraged by his inability to "draw well." If the goal wasn't "to draw well," but "to draw feelings," wouldn't there be absolutely no pressure? The primal impulse for lines and colors within him was ignited.

Thus, the "Resonance Mapping" plan was officially launched. Evelyn prepared a thick sketchbook for him, along with various colored pens, colored pencils, and even soft charcoal sticks, encouraging him to try different tools to express different textures.

The method was simple and open:

Focus: Choose an object you want to "feel"—it could be a piece of music, a mathematical formula, an item, or even an emotion or a memory.

Relax: Close your eyes, take a deep breath, let your body and mind relax, focus your attention on the feelings inside, don't think, just feel.

Express: Let your hand move naturally on the paper following the feeling, drawing lines, shapes, and color blocks. Do not judge, do not modify, do not think about "what this looks like," just focus on letting the internal Resonance flow out through the tip of the pen.

Record: After drawing, simply record the object of the drawing, the time, and the main feelings at that moment.

The initial attempts were simply a disastrous abstract art exhibition. Excellence closed his eyes, and the lines he drew by feeling were chaotic, like a ball of yarn played with by a cat, and the colors were often mixed into a messy, dirty lump at will. When he drew the beginning of "Beethoven's Fifth Symphony," he got a pile of wild black jagged lines that seemed to want to burst through the paper; when he drew "Quiet Night," the paper was covered in restless, swirling purple vortices. He scratched his head looking at it himself: "The feeling is right, so why does it look so ugly?"

Su Mu couldn't help but laugh while watching, but always encouraged him: "It's okay, feelings are inherently very abstract! Practice more, and maybe you'll find the knack." Evelyn focused more on analysis. She would take these "doodles" and guide Excellence to review his physical sensations while drawing: "When drawing this line, were your hands tense or relaxed? Was it smooth or blocked? This physical sensation might be more important than the shape drawn."

After practicing persistently for a few weeks, a turning point began to appear. Signs of regularity, like outlines hidden in the mist, gradually became clear.

Harmony and Stability: When Excellence listened to a soothing piece of Baroque music or thought about a beautifully symmetrical geometric theorem (like Euler's formula), the lines he drew often became smooth, rounded, and rhythmic. The shapes tended to be symmetrical or periodically repetitive, and the color schemes appeared soft and coordinated. A Resonance Mapping drawn for "a segment of digits after the decimal point of Pi" actually presented a charming, infinitely non-repeating spiral involute pattern, which even surprised Evelyn.

Conflict and Anomaly: And when the object of contact implied discord, the picture would immediately show sharp turns, abrupt breakpoints, chaotic intersecting lines, or discordant color collisions. Once, Evelyn gave him a seemingly perfectly running segment of program code (which actually hid an extremely subtle logical boundary error). After Excellence finished drawing, he pointed to an inconspicuous, sharp, short line in the corner of the picture that looked like a fingernail scratch and said: "Here... it's stuck a bit, it's uncomfortable."

The most groundbreaking experiment occurred in a double-blind test designed by Evelyn. She prepared an audio clip containing a stable, regular heartbeat ("thump-da, thump-da"), but in it, she extremely subtly and randomly inserted a few extremely faint premature beat noises (a type of heartbeat rhythm anomaly, manifesting as a weak heartbeat appearing early), the intensity of which was so low that an ordinary person would even need professional equipment to barely perceive it.

Evelyn did not tell Excellence any information about the audio, only asked him to close his eyes, listen carefully, and then draw his feelings.

Excellence obediently followed instructions. He wore headphones, his expression focused, his fingers tapping his knees lightly with the rhythm of the heartbeat. After listening, he picked up a Deep Blue pen and drew a smooth, evenly fluctuating wave line on the paper, perfectly reproducing the stable rhythm of the heartbeat. However, just as the wave line was moving smoothly, at a few specific, seemingly random points, Excellence's pen tip subconsciously and slightly paused, leaving behind very small but clear protrusions, like 'peaks' on an ECG!

When Evelyn compared Excellence's drawing with the precise spectrum of the audio, she was shocked to discover—the positions where the pen tip paused to create small protrusions almost exactly matched the precise time points where the premature beat noises appeared in the audio!

Su Mu, who was watching from the side, was so shocked by the comparison results that she covered her mouth, her eyes wide open. This meant that the sensitivity of Excellence's subconscious Perception might exceed some precise electronic instruments! He could capture extremely weak anomaly information submerged in strong background signals!

This successful verification not only shocked Evelyn and Su Mu, but also brought Excellence tremendous encouragement and an unprecedented sense of achievement. He held the drawing, looking at it repeatedly, his little face flushed red with excitement: "It really... it really drew it! I really 'heard' that different thing!" For the first time, he clearly confirmed the authenticity and value of his abilities. The haze of "I always cause trouble" was dispelled quite a bit, replaced by a confidence that "maybe I really can discover things that others can't."

Since then, "Resonance Mapping" was no longer a boring exercise, but had become an interesting exploration tool and a way of emotional expression in Excellence's life. He tirelessly conducted various "experiments":

Plant Communication: He drew pictures for the tomato seedlings in the Greenhouse and found that for healthy, robust seedlings, the drawn lines were full of upward vitality, while for one that was slightly wilted, the picture showed dry, broken brushstrokes. Based on this, he reminded the aunt in charge of gardening, and indeed, it was discovered that the seedling's root system had some problems.

Weather Premonition: Before it rained, the Resonance Mapping he drew about the "sky outside the window" would have colors that became moist and muddy, and the lines carried a heavy, drooping feeling.

Emotional Mapping: He even tried to draw "emotional Resonance Mapping" for Su Mu and Evelyn. He ended up drawing Su Mu's appearance when she pretended to be angry because he stole snacks as a cartoon fire-breathing dragon spitting fire and waving its claws, which amused Su Mu so much that she laughed out loud, and most of her anger dissipated. As for Evelyn in a state of deep thought, he drew her as a ball of colorful yarn constantly circling and tangling with itself. Evelyn looked at it and nodded thoughtfully: "Hmm, very vivid. Sometimes thinking is indeed like untangling a ball of mess."

This process not only helped him visualize his mysterious intuition but also became an effective way of emotional catharsis and mental organization. When he felt irritable, drawing a picture and letting his emotions flow onto the paper with the lines would make his heart much calmer. When he got stuck on a difficult problem, drawing the problem itself sometimes allowed him to unexpectedly discover new solutions in the abstract shapes.

Even the halos recorded by his "Emotion-Visualization Device" became richer in layers and dynamics with the progress of Resonance Mapping, as if his inner world had gained a richer and more delicate expression through the paintbrush.

One day, with Evelyn's permission and under close supervision, Excellence made a bold attempt—to draw a Resonance Mapping for the high-precision digital copy of that ancient star map.

This experience was completely different from the past. When Excellence stared at those mysterious constellation lines and strange symbols on the screen, he quickly entered a state of deep immersion, his breathing became long and slow, and his eyes glazed over. He picked up the brush, his movements no longer random, but a slow movement carrying a sense of solemnity, or even sanctity.

What gradually emerged under his pen was not a specific copy of the star map, but an extremely complex, exquisite Mandala-style pattern. This pattern was composed of countless fine, seemingly constantly rotating and intertwining lines and geometric shapes. In the center was a clear, deep circular hole, and the surrounding lines presented a dynamic trend of converging toward the center and being repelled by some kind of force. The entire picture was full of indescribable rhythm and mystery, both harmonious and containing tremendous tension. During the painting process, monitoring equipment recorded long-duration, high-intensity gamma wave synchronization in his brainwaves, which was very similar to a state of deep meditation or highly creative insight.

After finishing, Excellence let out a long sigh as if exhausted, muttering: "It... seems to be moving... breathing... there's a hole in the middle, sucking things in, and spitting things out..."

Evelyn gazed at this incredible painting, falling into a long contemplation. She intuitively felt that this painting might not be a random abstract expression, but rather Excellence's subconscious, in a way that transcended rational understanding, touching and mapping out some deep, dynamic potential structure behind the star map, perhaps even involving energy flow or information exchange. The "hole" in the center particularly concerned her. What did it symbolize? Was it a source point of energy? A singularity of information? Or... an entrance to some kind of passage? This Resonance Mapping seemed to open a brand-new, imaginative window for star map research, and also signaled that Excellence's exploration of his abilities was entering a more unfathomable level.

Through "Resonance Mapping," Excellence was step-by-step transforming that "gift" that once troubled him from a passive, elusive Perception into an internal tool that could be actively used and even used for creative expression. This path of exploration was not only about mastering his abilities, but also about self-recognition and growth; every step was full of the surprises of discovery and unknown challenges.