小灵子的房间跑进了一只小杰瑞。在衣柜拐角瞪着乌黑油亮的眼睛，身体则没在暗影里，不过一转眼就消失掉。“我房间里进老鼠了！”惊吓里似乎带着些许新鲜，“我还没跟老鼠一起住过，睡过，生活过。”
A little Jerry ran into Little Lingzi's room. It peered from the corner of the wardrobe with black, gleaming eyes, its body lost in the shadows, but in the blink of an eye, it vanished. "There's a mouse in my room!" The shock seemed to carry a hint of novelty. "I've never lived, slept, or co-existed with a mouse before."
当然还有委屈，她什么时候受过这样的委屈？接下来的几天，她充分体验了和杰瑞生活在一起的感觉。夜里总有稀稀疏疏，塑料袋被撕咬的声音。晚上她睡一阵醒一阵，白天在办公室撑一阵困一阵。
Of course, there was indignation; when had she ever suffered such an affront? For the next few days, she fully experienced life with Jerry. There were always rustling sounds in the night, the noise of plastic bags being gnawed. She would sleep fitfully, waking up repeatedly at night, and then struggle to stay awake during the day at the office.
为了照顾好杰瑞老弟，我网购了老鼠大夹子和粘鼠神贴。老鼠夹子放些麦子粉，神贴上放点剩菜诱饵，盛情招待。似乎生于南方的杰瑞，不感冒北方的食物，食物一点没动，垃圾桶也不翻。这杰瑞老弟，不是挑剔就是聪明，我猜两者都有一些。几天下来杰瑞还是咬它的塑料袋，小灵子还是失她的眠。
To take care of my little brother Jerry, I bought large mouse traps and "Magic Sticky Mouse Pads" online. I placed wheat flour in the traps and put leftovers as bait on the sticky pads, a hearty welcome. It seemed Jerry, having originated in the South, wasn't fond of Northern food. The bait remained untouched, and the garbage bin wasn't disturbed. This Jerry was either picky or smart; I guessed a bit of both. After several days, Jerry was still chewing plastic bags, and Little Lingzi was still losing sleep.
小灵子大为感叹，她布下的老鼠夹，自己都踩了好几次，而杰瑞老弟却是毫发无伤，简直比她还要聪明。杰瑞老弟不由令我想起，以前我是一个人类中心论者，尽管不自知如此，但总认为人类是独特的，拥有其他低等生物所不具有的意识。直到在《绿色星球》里，我观察到大量植物都有着自己的生存策略，仿佛都具有类似人类意识一样的东西——能够根据环境调整自身的行为，进化出有利于自身生存的部件和行为。
Little Lingzi was deeply frustrated, noting that she had stepped on her own traps several times, yet little Jerry remained completely unharmed—he was smarter than she was. Jerry couldn't help but remind me that I used to be a human exceptionalist, albeit unconsciously, always believing that humanity was unique, possessing a consciousness that other lower organisms lacked. That was until I watched The Green Planet and observed that a vast number of plants have their own survival strategies, seeming to possess something akin to human consciousness—the ability to adjust their behavior according to the environment and evolve parts and actions that favor their own survival.
我惊叹杰瑞那近乎智慧的聪明。我还渐渐认为，杰瑞老弟和我的区别，并不是我有意识而它没有，而是我拥有更多的神经元，能够产生更加复杂的意识活动，有更加便利的四肢和手指、更好的社会环境，能够识字、写文章、记录思考，能说些甜言蜜语，和异性打情骂俏。如果意识不为人类独有，那么作为意识的结晶——智慧，也不为人类独有。也许意识，可能是生命所独有，而人类只是一种生命形态。
I marveled at Jerry's near-intelligent cleverness. I gradually came to believe that the difference between Jerry and me is not that I possess consciousness and it doesn't, but that I have more neurons, which allow for more complex conscious activities, more convenient limbs and fingers, a better social environment, and the ability to read, write, record thoughts, utter sweet nothings, and flirt with the opposite sex. If consciousness is not unique to humanity, then wisdom, as the crystallization of consciousness, is not unique to humanity either. Perhaps consciousness is unique to life itself, and humanity is merely one form of life.
这天，小灵子发现床下遗忘已久的沙琪玛，已经被杰瑞吃掉四包。包装袋空空如也，里面的沙琪玛吃干抹净。
That day, Little Lingzi discovered four long-forgotten bags of Shaqima (a sweet treat) under the bed, which Jerry had devoured. The wrappers were empty, the Shaqima completely cleaned out.
作为顶级捕猎手的汤姆，我终究还是下场了。我这样远程布局：剩下的沙琪玛不要丢，就当做诱饵，显然杰瑞老弟很喜欢甜点。老鼠夹都用上，神贴都拿出来。沙琪玛搁在神贴中央，放回床底原来的位置，再放两个大夹子。我笃定，它在那里尝到甜头，就一定会重返那儿，人如此，动物亦如此，这是刻在生命基因里的规则。为了再增加一道防线，我让她留一条门缝，缝间堵着一个大夹子，前后各铺一张神贴，方便杰瑞老弟进出。再准备一个袋子，逮着就包起来拎出去。
As the ultimate predator, Tom, I finally entered the fray. I set up the following remote plan: the remaining Shaqima should be kept as bait—clearly, little Jerry loves sweets. All the traps were deployed, and the sticky pads were brought out. The Shaqima was placed in the center of a sticky pad, returned to its original spot under the bed, and flanked by two large traps. I was certain that where it had tasted sweetness, it would return. This is true for humans and animals alike; it is a rule inscribed in the genes of life. To add another line of defense, I asked her to leave a gap in the door, blocked by a large trap, with sticky pads laid before and after it to facilitate Jerry's entry and exit. I also prepared a bag to quickly package and remove the captive.
准备很充分，结果也很满意。凌晨五点，杰瑞跨过了我的第一道防线，门缝的夹子被触发了但没咬住它，而且前后的贴纸一点都没走样。而当它吭哧吭哧抵达甜蜜乡，“吱”一声，夹子咬住了它的脖子。它终究还是回到了尝到甜头的地方。
The preparation was thorough, and the result was satisfying. At five in the morning, Jerry crossed my first line of defense; the trap in the doorway was triggered but didn't catch him, and the sticky pads before and after were undisturbed. But when he eagerly reached his sweet paradise, squeak—the trap snapped his neck. He had, ultimately, returned to the place where he had tasted sweetness.
深圳人很多，人多垃圾就多，杰瑞们自然少不了。人类历史上有四次大鼠疫，第一次是东汉末年，第二和第三次弄死了五千万人，最近一次是上个世纪，死了一千两百多万人。可见杰瑞们简直是瘟疫的化身，现代社会不能容忍它们招摇上街和登堂入室，
There are many people in Shenzhen, and where there are people, there is rubbish, so Jerrys are naturally abundant. There have been four great plagues in human history: the first during the late Eastern Han Dynasty, the second and third killing fifty million people, and the most recent one in the last century, killing over twelve million. It is clear that Jerrys are the embodiment of plague, and modern society cannot tolerate them swaggering in the streets or entering our homes.
但是我又知道，这是自然界进化的产物，这是生命的另一种形态。在物种层面，我和杰瑞不能同处，但在生命层面，我们又同源共生。
But I also know that this is a product of natural evolution, another form of life. On the species level, Jerry and I cannot co-exist, but on the level of life, we are co-existent and share the same origin.
关于生命，我在《蓝色星球 2》看到一句精辟的弹幕，它说“生命总会找到出路“。BBC 系列的自然纪录片，真是完美地诠释着这句话：墙缝里的植物，沙漠里的枯草，深海承受几十吨水压的小鱼，在鲨鱼嘴底下产卵的革鳞鮨（yi 第四声）。当然，人类也是典型体现。动物学说，老鼠有四千多万年的历史，这比人类的历史要长得多。也足以说明在漫长的演化进程中，这个物种，一直在寻找出路。这不，有一只就找到小灵子房间来，虽然找错了。
Regarding life, I saw a brilliant comment in the bullet screen of Blue Planet 2 that said: "Life always finds a way." The BBC nature documentary series perfectly illustrates this: plants in wall crevices, dry grasses in the desert, tiny fish enduring tens of tons of water pressure in the deep sea, and the Soapfish (yì, fourth tone) laying eggs right under a shark's mouth. Humanity, of course, is also a classic example. Zoology states that mice have a history of over forty million years, much longer than that of humans. This is enough to show that throughout the long evolutionary process, this species has constantly been searching for a way out. And look, one even found its way into Little Lingzi's room, even if it was the wrong turn.
不是杰瑞现在才让我有感而发，我走进生活，走进社会、历史、自然，走进自己的内心、他人的世界，接触形形色色的生命形态，但是常有困惑。我能理解生命里，物种生存空间的不兼容和尔虞我诈、相互残杀，但我不理解生命。我能理解，生命是宇宙演化的一串节点，我是节点中的节点，杰瑞也是，但我不理解生命。我不理解生命的力量从何而来，生命为何总在寻找出路，生的力量意味着什么。
It wasn't just Jerry that inspired this reflection now. When I step into life, into society, history, nature, into my own heart and the worlds of others, I encounter all sorts of life forms, yet I am often confused. I can understand the incompatibility of species' living spaces, the deception, and the mutual killing within life, but I do not understand Life itself. I can understand that life is a series of nodes in the evolution of the universe—I am a node within nodes, and Jerry is too—but I do not understand Life. I do not understand where the power of life comes from, why life is always searching for a way out, and what the power of existence truly signifies.
后来呢，小灵子一大早起来把杰瑞老弟拎出去，又回来睡回笼觉。我问她杰瑞有没有吃到沙琪玛，她说没有。这就有些遗憾，我这头汤姆，只是顶级而不是冷血，我倒是希望它吃饱了上路的。
What happened next? Little Lingzi woke up early, carried little Jerry out, and came back to sleep in. I asked her if Jerry had at least eaten the Shaqima, and she said no. That's a bit of a pity. This Tom of mine is merely top-tier, not cold-blooded; I would have preferred for him to have a full stomach for the road.
二零二四年六月十二日，广州公园里
June 12, 2024, in a park in Guangzhou