Chapter 44

Zhou Wen entered Sun Jing’s office, closed the door, and locked it.

He made his way to Sun Jing’s side and said, “Sister, I have something to tell you.”

Sun Jing looked at the door of her office and then looked at Zhou Wen’s face before saying, “Even though you are quite good-looking, I’m already a mother of two children. We can’t be together.”

To which Zhou Wen replied, “… I’m aware of that, but I’m not referring to this matter.”

“Ah…” Sun Jing loosened her grip on the ball pen in her hand. “What’s the matter then?”

Zhou Wen gathered his thoughts and composed himself for a moment before he said, “I’ve been hiding in that small laboratory conducting experiments for days and nights just to write up my thesis these days. You’ve seen that, right?”

Sun Jing nodded and continued, “Yes, why?”

Zhou Wen answered, “It’s nothing much, only that I made a breakthrough discovery in my experiment.”

Sun Jing said smilingly, “That’s a good thing, isn’t it? Why do you look sad and distressed, though?”

Zhou Wen heaved a sigh, shook his head, and said with a bitter smile on his face, “You’re a person who has experienced this before. I believe that you understand the situation in our profession’s academia more than me. As an undergraduate student, I did something that many specialists and professors can’t. Do you still think that it is a good thing?”

Sun Jing nodded in enlightenment.

The idea that seniority must be given top priority was not just a phenomenon present in the workplace; the phenomenon was actually even more severe among the academic community.

If what Zhou Wen told was the truth and that he had truly made a breakthrough discovery, then he would be showered not only with praises but would also be bogged down with queries or even slander and defamation.

Zhou Wen paused for a moment. Soon afterward, he said, “I have confidence that I’m capable of responding to the academic community’s queries, of course. However, the thing that bothered me the most comes in the form of capitalist obstruction.

Sun Jing looked astonished upon hearing Zhou Wen’s remarks.

“What did you discover, actually? How did capitalists get involved even?”

Zhou Wen answered proudly, “Genetic modification. Through genetic modification, I can make the reproduction rate of rice root aphids drop by 30% permanently, which will indirectly increase the yield of agricultural products such as paddy and wheat, among other stuff.”

Sun Jing came from a medical background, too, so she was well aware of what genetic modification naturally meant.

Upon hearing Zhou Wen’s statement, she gasped in surprise and revealed a look of admiration on her face. “Really? I heard that genetic modification is extremely difficult and that no laboratory in the country has managed to do it successfully for the time being. How did you do it?

Zhou Wen nodded. He deviated from the topic of conversation by saying, “That’s not important anymore. The main thing is that I wish to thank you, sister. Had it not been for your constant favor toward me and even providing me the small laboratory free of charge as well as reminding me to go for a meal every day, how can I possibly succeed in the genetic modification?”

“Sister, I’m really grateful for your help!”

Sun Jing was slightly embarrassed by Zhou Wen’s compliment.

However, Zhou Wen was telling the truth. She had genuinely provided the laboratory to him and reminded him to have his meal when he conducted experiments tirelessly such that he had forgotten to eat and sleep. She would bring him takeaways frequently too.

She deserved a part of this medal of honor.

“Yikes, it’s nothing. This is all your hard work and is unrelated to me.”

Zhou Wen expressed his gratitude a little further before he said, “However, this matter will involve some stakeholders. The genetic modification technology will certainly affect the agricultural chemical production industry immensely. They will certainly stand by and ignore this, and they will surely try to slander me or come up with all sorts of excuses to try to stop the genetic modification technology from being introduced. It would be a waste if that were to happen.”

Zhou Wen’s remarks sounded like an alarmist’s talk. However, he had no choice but to be prepared just in case of anything.

Sun Jing nodded with a frown upon hearing that. “So, how can I help you?”

The key point was coming.

Zhou Wen replied, “I’m a university graduate who comes from a village. I don’t have a worthy family background, and I can’t contend with those capitalists. The only way that I can think of is to utilize public opinion to make them think twice before they take any action.”

Zhou Wen paused for a moment before he continued to speak, “Thus, I’m thinking of inviting a journalist to interview me, and I would like to seek your help to conveniently put in a good word for me.”

Sun Jing was not a fool, so she understood Zhou Wen’s intention.

There was an out-of-date saying that ‘a man dreads fame as a pig dreads being fat; fame portends trouble for men just as fattening does for pigs’.

In modern society, one would only be at a disadvantage by being famous.

Fame ensured that your voice could be heard by others.

Fame ensured that the others would think twice before they try to take advantage of you.

“Sure, that’s okay. Make an appointment with the journalist, and I will certainly put in a good word for you then.”

“Thank you, sister.”

“You’re welcome.”

Zhou Wen cracked into a smile and said, “If only we could have met before you got married! Had it not been for the sake of your husband treating you well, I will pursue you at all costs.”

Sun Jing suppressed the urge to laugh and said nonchalantly, “Just wait; my husband’s Cadillac has constantly been turning into the massage parlor recently. Perhaps, you will still have a chance.”

Zhou Wen hastily slipped out of the room to evade the danger.

…

For the rest of the morning, Zhou Wen was researching primer design in the comprehensive laboratory.

‘Primer’ referred to a short nucleic acid sequence that provided a starting point for DNA synthesis. A primer must be synthesized by an enzyme called ‘primary’, which was a type of RNA polymerase, before DNA replication would occur.

On the other hand, a primer design was to use a short strand of single-chain DNA or RNA to act as the starting polynucleotide chain that extended multiple polynucleotide chains during the nucleic acid synthesis.

The primer design was an extremely difficult process.

Under ordinary circumstances, primers would be designed by specialized biology companies and sold to the research centers and laboratories. There was no need for one to design one’s own primer.

Of course, this type of conventional primer designed by these companies was targeted for the usage of ordinary PCR experiments. There were certain special experiments such as reverse transcription RT-PCR where one would need to design a ‘special primer’ personally.

On the other hand, a master would certainly need to know how to design a special primer!

After watching a few hours of lectures, he went to Bodhisattva Lane for lunch at noon.

He rested for a while after lunch and then called for a taxi to head to the campus.

It was already one o’clock by the time he arrived in the university’s laboratory.

Wang Huiyao was already waiting for him in the office.

Zhou Wen knocked on the door, entered the office, and said respectfully, “Hello, Professor Wang.”

Zhou Wen was not Wang Huiyao’s student. As a result, he still addressed Wang Huiyao as a ‘professor’.

Noticing Zhou Wen’s arrival, Wang Huiyao extended a hand enthusiastically and beckoned to the office chair opposite him, saying, “Hmm, take a seat.”

“Thank you.” Zhou Wen took a seat opposite Wang Huiyao.

Wang Huiyao smiled and kickstarted the conversation, “I heard that you’re working in an affiliated hospital now, is that right?”

“Uh, yes.”

“Which department is that?”

“PCR Team.”

“Oh? Is Yang Liqun still working there?”

“Mmhmm, he is. He is the team leader of the viral test team.”

Wang Huiyao nodded with a smile, and then he brought the conversation back on topic. “I’ve read the thesis. It’s extremely exciting and also very… unexpected.”

“Thank you for your compliment, Professor Wang.”

Wang Huiyao asked, “How did you come up with the idea for this topic?”

Wang Huiyao began inquiring Zhou Wen on the questions related to the thesis.

Zhou Wen answered fluently.

The more Wang Huiyao listened, the more his blood ran cold. He discovered that Zhou Wen had an extremely strong understanding of Biology and its theoretical foundation. In fact, there were many things mentioned by Zhou Wen of which he only had superficial knowledge.

One should not find this situation strange, however. There was the frequently-used internet term known as ‘eggspurt’. This term was coined because, in the real academic community, there was a relatively large portion of these so-called ‘eggspurt’ experts. These were the people that were filling the posts without qualifications. They spent all day hustling about trying to make profits and involved themselves in politics with academic standards that were so low to the point where it was terrifying.

This was also the origin of ‘scholar-tyrants’.

Wang Huiyao was considered a rather impressive eggspurt because he could still understand what Zhou Wen was talking about, at the very least.

Zhou Wen started to unravel his idea for this research by telling Wang Huiyao some classy, elegant genetic code knowledge just to startle Wang Huiyao into being bewildered.

Then, he talked about the newest biotechnology updates overseas. Moreover, he conversed in full English throughout the process without even a pause in between.

Even though Wang Huiyao’s language fluency was limited, his English standard was still extremely impressive. Otherwise, how was he capable of lecturing?

However, it was also precisely due to this reason that he had a complete change of perception toward Zhou Wen.

He discovered in surprise that a ‘genius’ was actually still hidden in the Biology program of Jiangzhou University.

Zhou Wen had just finished talking about international frontier genetic code knowledge when he diverted the topic of conversation back to his thesis.

He expressed that due to the influence of genetic code studies from overseas, he conducted experiments day in and day out in the small hospital laboratory before he finally managed to break a portion of the genetic code at last, which resulted in his success in manipulating rice root aphid’s genes.

Wang Huiyao was already dumbfounded by Zhou Wen at this time.

From the bottom of his heart, he was satisfied by the performance of this learned man despite his young age.

He believed that Zhou Wen was telling the truth. Otherwise, Zhou Wen would not be able to explain it at all.

“Clap, clap, clap…”

When Zhou Wen was done speaking, Wang Huiyao could not refrain himself from clapping in excitement as he uttered, “Mmhmm, bravo; well-said…”