Chu Chu is not available for work period because Chang'an is giving her remedial Scholomance lessons or something so Wei Wuxian decides to go hang out with his other best friend.
"Hey, Masozi! Want to study together in the reading room?"
"Yeah. ...Oh! Ayako told me a good math problem last night, and I tried to solve it with street fighting math but my guess was kind of wrong and I was trying to figure out what I assumed wrong - here, I drew a graph - there's a sequence of numbers and it starts with zero and then one and then you get the next number by adding the two before it and the question was when you get above 1000..."
He digs out a crumpled scrap of paper and proudly shows Wei Wuxian his carefully drawn graph.
"....I dunno that doing this really helped? The thing I did to make it easier was I looked at the start of the sequence and said that it doubles about every two steps forward. But it actually gets big a bit faster than that, so I said twenty-one steps but the real answer is eighteen steps."
"So there's this code throughout all your body that tells your body what to do-- like, it says 'toe goes on your foot and not growing out of your ear' and it says 'Zaizai's skin should be darker than Wei Ying's skin' and it says 'when you're stressed produce this particular brain chemical,' all of that stuff. It's called genes."
"Aww. But - something has to be able to read the code, right? For it to make things happen the right way instead of just sitting there not doing anything? Like how if there are instructions in a book to make an artifact, someone has to follow them, if no one follows them then there's no artifact, just the book..."
"Your body knows how to read the code, but people can't. --You get half your genes from your mom and half from your dad. That's what come is, there are a bunch of little copies of half of your code and then if it meets an egg inside the woman's body she gets pregnant."
"Anyway. Evolution. So some people are more likely to have kids than other people, right? Like, some people die young, or are super hot so everyone wants to have sex with them, or really like babies, or do a better job of taking care of their kids, and they get more kids and more grandkids."
....Yeah that's probably true, and Masozi is kind of grateful to Wei Wuxian for spontaneously bringing it up.
"Anyway. Evolution. So - it's just a math thing, right, if some people - or animals - have more children, that's more of their code that exists, and so you do that over and over and over, and - eventually you end up with code that's better for surviving and having children?"
"Yep! And sometimes the code isn't copied exactly right-- so maybe your body makes a mistake in copying and it tells your kids to have lighter skin-- and then if lighter skin helps your kids survive and have their own children it spreads throughout the population. And that's why people have different skin colors, some people's bodies made a mistake in copying the code for skin color and dark skin is better for surviving in Africa and light skin is better for surviving in China."
"Your skin needs to absorb sunlight to make a particular chemical but if you absorb too much sunlight it can mess up the code and in particular the part of it that tells your skin 'stop growing more skin, we have enough skin.' And you get more sunlight in Africa than in China. --Uh, I feel like the way I explained it sounds weird, it creates tumors? I don't know if you know the word 'tumor.'"
Nod. "Right. But if you have pale skin in Africa then there's - you get more tumors or your kids do, and getting more of the chemical doesn't help enough to account for that, and so eventually all those people die and don't have kids and then everyone who's left only has dark skin? And.... Is everything like that? Like - having legs, or having eyes - except I dunno, that seems more complicated? Maybe you can get light skin from the code being copied with a mistake but I don't see how you could get legs from that."
"Well, it takes millions of years. But eyes start out as something that can just sense light, and then they get a little better, and then a little better, and then you get full eyes. --I can go into more detail but that involves a major tangent about how eyes work and I think it's hard to explain if you don't have an eye to dissect so you can look at the parts."
"If you have a bunch of small changes they become really big changes. It's not a big change to evolve lungs that can breathe air a little bit, and then they get a little better, and then a little better, and there's lots of food and no predators on land at that point so it makes sense for some animals to evolve to be on land, and then their fins slowly change to be better at walking on land, and after millions of years you get people."
(They arrive at the reading room.)
"Mouths have a lot of nerves and people tend to like touching parts of their bodies that have a lot of nerves to other people's bodies, especially if they're attracted to them. I'm not sure why that evolved? Maybe as a way to make relationships stronger since human babies take a lot of care so you have to make sure people like each other if they're going to have one, so evolution was like 'here's a sex-associated thing that is also fun and makes you like people.'"
"...Do people cuddle kids?" Masozi's childhood did not exactly contain a lot of cuddling, not once his older sister died. He...supposes he vaguely remembers his mother carrying the babies around, but usually that was just because they couldn't walk yet or weren't weaned yet? And he can't actually remember being that small. "I guess. So - it's a thing to want to cuddle your friends because you like them, but not to want to kiss them?"
"Oh."
Masozi considers this intently.
"I...don't think I start thinking about it at random times? Just if I - see them, or remember something they told me, or think of something I want to tell them about." Also he's catching himself being weirdly shy and circumspect in talking about this? He isn't sure why, it's not like he would have thought it was embarrassing to ask the question, and yet.
"...Okay so Nie Huaisang told me that romantic feelings are - 'when you can't stop thinking about someone and you feel warm and happy when you think about them, and you want to hold hands with them and hug them and kiss them and give them presents and spend time together just the two of you, and it's really important that they think well of you.' I - wouldn't say I can't stop thinking about them, that would be stupid when I've got other things to do, but I guess I - end up thinking about them a lot while I'm doing things. I...dunno if I want to kiss them, I think I don't understand kissing enough yet to really imagine it properly and so it just sounds stressful? And I don't have anything I could give as a present, unless - doing a really good job on learning Mandarin because it makes them happy is that sort of thing? And I have lots of reasons why it's important for them to think well of me, I think, so I would no matter what."
"So, if you're dating a girl, you can only date one at once, right? It's, like, evolution, you don't want to invest in the girl's babies if they might not be related to you at all. But if it's guys it doesn't matter. Having lots of boyfriends is just good for you because there are more people who can help you and your kids."
"- Is that true? I...was confused about why it would be a thing at all to - like boys that way. In the way where you want to fuck them and not just hold hands, I mean. ...Which I guess I - don't think I actually want to do? That sounds really weird. So maybe it's not a real crush and it's just - two-thirds of a crush or something?" This is all extremely confusing and Masozi is not sure that the evolution explanation is actually making it all that much less confusing.
Masozi feels like this is questionable logic. There are a LOT of things you could do that don't stop you from also fucking girls and that there's no reason not to want to do, that isn't the same thing as there being a reason to want to do it.
"...Anyway should I - tell him? I'm - kind of scared to. I mean, not...the kind of scared where I think he might get mad and hit me about it. Some other kind of scared." This is ALSO very confusing.
"Yeah, why not? Best-case scenario you get to play with his hair, which you'll like, and you'll be in a close relationship with the head of Shanghai enclave, which is great for you. And in the worst-case scenario he'll probably be all 'I am smiling pleasantly at you and explaining in a calm and very nice and empathetic way why that can't happen.' He's not really a person with many strong feelings, Lan Xichen."
"Yeah. I guess." For some reason thinking about this is making his pulse beat fast in his throat, even though Masozi is pretty sure he's not even slightly in danger of being fed to mals or something for saying slightly the wrong thing to Lan Xichen. "....How do I tell him I have a crush on him?"
Nod.
"...I dunno if telling him actually gives him more information about my feelings? I already pet his hair sometimes so presumably he knows I want to do that?" Masozi pauses, frowning. "- Actually we had a weird conversation where he kept telling me I didn't have to do it unless I wanted to? I have no idea why else he thinks I would do that!"
"Well, he wants you to pet his hair, and he's scared that you know that and are only petting his hair because he could easily kill you if he got mad at you and no one could stop him. --I mean we'd all be really angry about it and Jiang Cheng would probably try to kill him but you might not know that."
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaah that sounds like a whole lot of steps of inference about bizarre complicated politics in hypothetical scenarios and Masozi has no idea how to respond to it!
".....I don't think you should kill Lan Xichen even if he gets mad and kills me! That would just mean more people at Shanghai would die!"
....Okay he needs to try to CALM DOWN because the horrifying scenario Wei Wuxian brought up is a hypothetical that isn't even going to happen. (Why do people have to bring up horrifying things that aren't going to happen??? It's so distracting!)
"I.... Okay. So - you think this is evidence he likes me? I - guess that's good? If it means he's - more likely to be happy and not unhappy if I tell him I have a crush?"
That's really confusing but also fascinating! Masozi goes still again while he mulls it over.
"So....like if two plus two equaled five? Or if - instead of it being that fish and people both evolved from an animal that was more like a fish, instead life started on land and fish and people both evolved from an animal like a mouse?"
"Okay, so, you know how you're part of Shanghai enclave and there are also a bunch of things we want from you, like that you're going to learn Mandarin and help keep Wen Ning and Nie Huaisang alive and spot mals for people on maintenance shifts and things like that?"
"So I think Lan Xichen is worried that you'll think that one of the things on the list of things you need to do to be part of Shanghai enclave is to pet his hair, when he wants it to be something like getting drunk with us where you can if you want to but if you don't no one will go 'wow! Zaizai won't drink with us, we hate him, we are banishing him from the enclave forever.'"
Masozi freezes, again, because he's suddenly worried that he did something very wrong!
"I - I mean, I didn't not want to drink with you? But.... So the thing Nie Huaisang said to me about sex is that I shouldn't have sex with anyone unless they were enthusiastic, and - that I shouldn't have sex myself unless I was excited and wanted to? ......And I didn't actually feel that way about getting drunk. I kind of thought it was a bad idea, but I checked and Nie Huaisang said that he'd asked Lan Xichen and so I figured it was probably safe.....?"
"Yes. There are eight planets that rotate around the sun-- Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. You can see Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn without a telescope." He thinks. "I guess you can also see Earth without a telescope."
"Is that because Earth is the planet we live on?"
Pause.
"- Wei Wuxian. Have you - ever actually tried to - notice and imagine and feel in your bones, that, that we live on a planet which is a ball flying through space? ....Because it's weird. Right? This is really weird!"
(Masozi is currently vividly imagining exactly this and it's making him very dizzy.)
"- It might not help but I should try telling you anyway? I - so before when I was in Malawi, after both my parents died and I was trying to travel by myself to Johannesburg because I'd heard about the Scholomance and that enclaves had places for it–" Pause. "....I guess my idea might only work if you're really really tired but you just can't sleep because of being too scared. Or maybe if it's something sort of similar to that? Do you think your problem might be sort of similar to that?"
"What, I'm pretty sure swords are bet– Nevermind. I - yeah, it's hard. The thing I do is - instead of trying to think about anything, I try to focus on noticing all the places in my body that hurt, and then making all of my muscles relax? ....I guess maybe you don't have the problem where if you're spending your whole day running and fighting mals then you stop being able to feel your body. I get that problem sometimes, and so trying to do this helped me notice where I was hurt and also helped me fall asleep?"
Nod. "So - maybe you could try to focus on how your body is really cool? And - focus on your toes and think about all the bones and joints muscles in them -" Masozi does not even slightly know what bones and muscles are in toes, "- and then relax all the muscles and stuff? And then you just - do that one body part at a time, up from your toes toward your head.... I always fall asleep before I get to my ribs."
"- What? ...I - honestly I think it just seemed like a distraction he wouldn't expect me to do in a fight? But I definitely didn't do it because working on projects in your bed is a smart idea if that's how you fall asleep!"
Why would that possibly be a reason to do that. He's so confused.
"I hope it helps." Masozi is now kind of worried that his advice is going to do the opposite of help with Wei Wuxian's sleep problem. Hmm what else is good for being tired enough to fall asleep. "You could - do lots of exercise? That's good for building mana too although I think it's less good for that if you're eating enough food." Masozi has now started to notice this trend, and considers it deeply unfair.