Chapter 13

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation

Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

On the way to the cafeteria, Yang Yudong exclaimed excitedly, “I only managed to perform the electrophoresis analysis after I graduated from the undergraduate program, and even that took me a lot of effort. Furthermore, the dumb senior refused to let us even touch the electron microscope. He said he’s afraid that we will break it.”

Yang Yudong paused for a moment before he continued to complain, “However, I won’t even bother to look at it if I’m in the same situation now. I’ll turn around and leave right away. You won’t believe me if I tell you this, but I went for an interview with a chemical factory on Friday. Three of us went together. Two of them are from a vocational school, and there was me. In the end, the factory hired the two people and rejected me. I’m a m*th*rf*ck*ng master’s degree candidate of Project 211, and I’m still inferior to the two vocational school graduates. What is the point of having this certificate, huh?”

Zhou Wen did not comment but listened to Yang Yudong grumble with a sorrowful feeling in his heart. 

There was nothing they could do. They learned about mainstream science and comprehensive content in the biology program of the university. It was not a matter of effort because the doctoral candidates were just the same. They had even mastered mainstream science on a deeper level. 

This was because biology was a research-based field of science. On the other hand, research was too high end such that one would not only need to comprehend all the current basic knowledge of biology but would also need to understand all the knowledge related to research. Only then would one be able to bring forth new ideas. 

On the other hand, other courses were practical-based studies. One would only need to learn and practice all the available materials. As for research, it would be handled by selected people that were interested in the field. 

Hence, the students jokingly called the biology program the ‘dragonslayer program’. There was no dragon to slay after graduation, so the only employment available was to teach the children how to ‘slay dragons’ and hope that ‘real dragons’ would appear in the next few decades. 

It was just like one of Zhou Wen’s seniors, an awe-inspiring master’s graduate from a renowned university. He worked in one of the universities on Project 211, located in a second-tier city in the country. He received a monthly salary of 7000 RMB while a local property cost 20,000 RMB. 

He studied for many years and burned the midnight oil for so many nights; he worked on so many exercises, endured all sorts of stresses, took part in all kinds of cruel examinations, and became an ordinary person that could not even afford to buy a house. It was a heart-wrenching story. 

Meanwhile, Yang Yudong did not return to the laboratory after lunch. He was missing in action together with Gu Hongyun. 

It was possible that they seized the opportunity to consummate in the love nest outside the campus during their lunch break. 

Lin Jiayi did not return to the laboratory as well, of course. 

In the end, Zhou Wen was grateful for the tranquility. Otherwise, it would be rather awkward for him to bump into Lin Jiayi again. He returned to the laboratory and completed the other DNA extraction samples. 

Mission accomplished! Upon submitting the mission, Zhou Wen checked on his individual property panel and found that his XP points had already grown to 1580. 

But just as he was about to upgrade his pharmacology course, the phone in his pocket rang. He took it out to see that the call came from Professor Wang Huiyao. 

Zhou Wen saved Wang Huiyao’s phone number, but he had never used it before. The random call left him stunned for a moment. Nevertheless, he could roughly guess the purpose of Wang Huiyao’s call, so he picked up the phone and said, “Hello, Professor Wang. This is Zhou Wen speaking.”

“I’m in my office. Come and see me for a moment.”

Zhou Wen removed his gloves, washed his hand, and walked out of the laboratory. 

In the office, Wang Huiyao was writing something with his head lowered. His thick, black hair was combed with meticulous attention. He pointed to the office chair opposite him when he saw Zhou Wen walking into his office and said, “Take a seat.”

Zhou Wen took a seat on the office chair. 

Then, Wang Huiyao continued to write for about three minutes with a whooshing sound. He picked up the pen cap from the table and capped his pen before he looked at Zhou Wen and asked, “How’s your learning?”

Zhou Wen nodded. “Hmm! It’s okay.”

Wang Huiyao added, “How about your graduation thesis?”

Zhou Wen answered frankly, “Uh… I’m still working on that, but I have a few ideas.”

Wang Huiyao answered with a ‘hmm’, and then he asked a few insignificant questions casually before saying, “Alright, you should return to your tasks first.”

Upon saying that, he lowered his head and continued to write. 

Zhou Wen was under the assumption that Wang Huiyao would be criticizing him, yet he did not expect that the man would let him off the hook so easily. What was his intention then?

Zhou Wen pondered for a moment and thought that everything made a lot of sense all of a sudden. Wang Huiyao called him up and invited him over to the office for a reason; even though he did not mention anything, his action was actually equal to him expressing himself. Perhaps, it was due to a complaint. 

‘No wonder he’s a professor. He is on a different level.’

Zhou Wen felt rather amused by the thought of it. 

Lin Jiayi was so childish. Why would she not think about whose task he was helping to perform? She had actually gone to complain about him to the tutor. Could it be that she wanted Wang Huiyao to stop him from performing free labor?

Anyway, he rushed over to the library after he left the laboratory building. He had only left the library when the library closed at ten in the evening. 

Zhou Wen received Shi Lei’s call when he was on the way back to his hostel room. Shi Lei chuckled at what he learned and told Zhou Wen that he was buying dinner tomorrow. 

Meanwhile, Zhou Wen asked smilingly, “Your interview was a success, right?”

Shi Lei answered with a ‘mmhmm’. “A laboratory technician is leaving, so I’m going to take over his position.”

“Congrats, congrats…” said Zhou Wen, earnestly. 

Shi Lei was in a worse situation than him. The job was undoubtedly very important to him. Shi Lei did not explain the specific terms of the employment, so he did not inquire further. However, he could tell that Shi Lei was rather satisfied based on his tone of speech. 

The word ‘satisfied’ meant that he was probably earning a monthly wage of 5000 RMB with food and accommodation provided. 

…

The next morning, Zhou Wen headed to the library with unshakable determination. He completed the mission at 11 in the morning.

In addition to the mission from yesterday, he had accumulated a total of five loot boxes now. 

Therefore, Zhou Wen made the decision to open the loot boxes now. 

He did not perform any special blessing ritual, such as showering and changing his clothes. Still, he lit a cigarette and began opening the boxes in the alley behind the library. 

The first loot box. [Congratulations, you have received 100 RMB.] 

Zhou Wen felt rather joyous for receiving money from the first box. According to the trend of this event, he would be able to support his living expenses independently for this month. There was no need for his family to send him an allowance anymore. 

Unfortunately, the second loot box was empty. 

As for the third loot box… [Congratulations, you have received Biotype plaster X10.] 

The Biotype plaster appeared to be slightly longer and broader than the ones commonly found in pharmacies. It was about the size of a small Sofie pantyliner. 

“This is good…” Zhou Wen was pleased. The items given by the system was certainly valuable. Even though he had yet to test out its effect, he knew that it was extraordinary. 

The fourth loot box was empty, too, while the fifth loot box yielded him another reward. [Congratulations, you have received 100 RMB.] 

He received 200 RMB in total and ten Biotype plasters. Zhou Wen felt very content in his heart. He was growing increasingly confident that he would not need to trouble his parents for money. 

He took a moment to savor the joy for a while. Soon afterward, he recalled that he had forgotten to upgrade his course when he saw the XP points he had accumulated. 

He chose to upgrade pharmacology. 

[Would you like to upgrade your pharmacology?]

[Yes]

[Spend 880 XPs to upgrade. Please confirm the selection.]

[Confirm] 

A ray of gold-yellow radiance flashed past the pharmacology course section upon his confirmation. He was upgraded from Lvl 0 to Lvl 1.

The familiar feeling of sudden enlightenment radiated through his mind once again. Countless names of medicines, pharmacological effects, and also mechanisms that troubled him began to emerge before his eyes. Then, it was seared into his memory such that he had a deeper understanding of pharmacology. 

He felt that he would be able to explain the absorption process, pharmacology effect, clinical application, side effects, and a bit of any given type of orthodox medicine now. 

Based on his current standards, he could say that he knew about way more things than many doctors today. This was in his less than humble opinion, of course. 

He felt excited for a moment. Then, he saw that he still had 900 XP points left, so he took a glance at the course content list and pondered for a moment. He decided to upgrade his biochemistry course. 

[Would you like to upgrade your biochemistry?]

[Yes]

[Spend 900 XPs to upgrade. Please confirm the selection.]

[Confirm] 

A ray of radiance flashed past the biochemistry course section. He was upgraded from Lvl 0, 100/1000 to Lvl 1, 0/5000.

Soon, the functions of molecular structures that troubled him immensely in the past turned into symbols that levitated before his eyes for a moment. They were then deeply seared into his mind. 

Perhaps, it was due to pharmacology and biochemistry sharing a few things in common that Zhou Wen discovered that when his biochemistry was upgraded, he had a deeper level of understanding of pharmacology. 

If he were to attempt the rice root aphid’s chemical reagent now, he believed that his success rate should be even higher. 

“Hmm, I shall give it a try tomorrow.”

…

In the laboratory department of the First People’s Hospital in Jiangzhou District at one in the afternoon, the senior pathologist from the laboratory department, the PCR tea leader, Zhang Shuguang, frowned reading the test report in his hand. 

The laboratory technician, Wu Yan, with a mask hanging across her chin, walked over and asked, “Team leader, what’s going on? Is something wrong?”

“There’s nothing wrong, to be honest…” Zhang Shuguang answered casually. Then, he pointed to the data on the report and said, “Why is the test data much clearer than the ones we received before? This is odd.”

“Where?” Wu Yan extended her neck to take a look at the data. She hesitated for a moment before saying, “We’ve noticed that too. The issue should be due to the concentration level of the DNA.”

Zhang Shuguang asked curiously, “Oh, how do you know about this?”

Wu Yan answered, “When we were examining viruses previously, we ran out of DNA, so Li took two samples from the drug test team. At the time, the test data was almost the same as this. In the end, we discovered that it was due to the DNA testing.”

Zhang Shuguang nodded. “Hmm…”

Wu Yan continued, “I checked from the drug test team, and the drug test team was facing almost the same situation. They said that the DNA was sent from Jiangzhou University. However, we used two more samples from them, and the result was not as obvious, so I didn’t tell you about it.”

“Did you run a sample analysis?”

“Not yet.”

Zhang Shuguang nodded and passed the test report in his hand to Wu Yan. He said smilingly, “This is a talented person. Here, run an electrophoresis analysis first. If the concentration level is truly high, figure out a way to get this person to work for us…”