Zhou Wen rushed back to the laboratory department just in time to bump into Wu Yan when he passed by the administration building. A man holding a bouquet of fresh flowers in his hand was with her.
The man looked rather childish, and he was dressed in branded clothing from head to toe. There was even a shiny stud in his left ear piercing.
Upon seeing Zhou Wen, Wu Yan greeted him, “You just got back, huh?”
Zhou Wen replied, “Mmhmm.”
“Let’s walk together. I have something to discuss with you, coincidentally.” As she was speaking, Wu Yan walked toward him.
The man followed her and passed the fresh bouquet to her. “Yan Yan, please don’t be like this. Give me another chance, I promise…”
Wu Yan stopped walking and said in all apparent seriousness to the man, “Your promises are empty; do you think that I’ll ever trust you again?”
“Yan Yan…”
“Go away.”
Upon saying that, Wu Yan walked to Zhou Wen while saying, “Let’s go.”
Zhou Wen and Wu Yan walked toward the laboratory building, side by side. He took a glance at the man and saw that he hesitated for a moment after seeing Wu Yan leave without turning back. In the end, he turned around and walked toward the inpatient car park.
“My ex-boyfriend.”
“Mmhmm!”
“Douchebag.”
“Ah…”
“He… Forget about it; don’t talk about him anymore.”
“A senior told me today that what you encounter in life is not important; the lessons you learn from these experiences are more important.”
“Mmhmm!” Wu Yan nodded and added, “I learned from the hospital meeting earlier that there’s this interhospital conference which will be organized at the end of this month. Our department will be sending people to take part in it as well.”
Zhou Wen asked out of curiosity, “Why are you telling me this? An all-inclusive expense-paid opportunity like this will never come to us.”
To which Wu Yan replied, “That’s where you’re wrong. This event is not just for having free food and fun, but it’s for business. The representatives from the departments of each hospital will be displaying their professional abilities there. You can’t even think about attending it without being capable.”
Zhou Wen laughed and responded, “That’s fine too. The masters in our laboratory department are as abundant as clouds; it will never be our turn since we are such minor characters in this department.”
“We will only know after we try, right. You can’t just attend this conference because of your seniority. You will also need to possess a perfect mastery of professional skills.”
“What are you saying? Are you saying that you want me to take part?”
“What do you think?” Wu Yan chuckled. “Your DNA extraction was completed in one hour and 17 minutes. I can’t say that it’s the fastest in the entire province, but I can absolutely confirm that you ranked in the top three amongst all the laboratory technicians in our hospital. As for whether you’re capable of ranking first, we will only know after we test it out. On the other hand, I heard from Wen Hao and Su Qi that your PCR skill is higher than theirs too.”
Zhou Wen waved his hand to dismiss the idea. “No, no, my skill is subpar…”
Before Zhou Wen could finish his sentence, a prompt sound was heard in his ears.
[Ding! Wu Yan is inviting you to take part in the provincial interhospital conference. Would you like to accept it…”
Hearing the prompt in his ears, Zhou Wen changed his mind by saying, “Alright… Since you think that highly of me, I shall give it a try then. When is it going to be?”
Wu Yan took a glance at him and pondered for a moment. She found that his answer sounded too… rigid.
He was so determined that he was not suitable just a moment ago, yet he obviously changed his mind in an instant.
It felt just like a man that would rather starve to death than eat food handed out in contempt who suddenly changed his mind to take the food anyway.
The two returned to the laboratory as they chatted.
He took a glance at the mission requirement conveniently along the way.
[Mission: Interhospital Conference
Requirement: Represent PCR Team and take part in the provincial interhospital conference.
Reward: 300 Course XP, 300 Points. 1x Loot box Chance (Wood)]
Even though it was just a wood loot box, he understood the term ‘beggars can’t be choosers’.
Zhou Wen did not choose to accept the mission immediately. He wanted to seize the opportunity to conduct a few more genetic modification experiments before he headed to the conference.
He returned to the laboratory on the third floor and continued to observe the hereditary traits of the aphids.
Mesh Box 1.
Mesh Box 2.
Mesh Box 3.
Mesh Box 4.
Mesh Box 5.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6… 178, 179.
“Huh? That’s all?” When Zhou Wen observed until Mesh Box 7, he discovered that the number of aphids inside was obviously wrong.
According to the experiment proceedings over the days, one generation of aphids could reproduce 250-350 aphid offsprings under ordinary circumstances with proper temperature and humidity. Yet, it was obvious that the number in this box had reduced significantly.
He recorded the data on his laptop.
Then, he began observing the aphid’s traits inside Mesh Box 7.
He discovered that the number of deformed aphids inside this box was obviously much higher than the few mesh boxes before this. These aphids were either having distorted body parts or missing body parts. Some had even undergone genetic mutation.
Zhou Wen was incomparably excited in his heart. He felt like he was going to make a huge breakthrough this time.
He immediately checked on the biochemicals used in the Mesh Box 7 and also its ratio.
“Mercury sulfide, narasin, quinocetone…”
After finding it, he did not continue to observe the remaining 40 mesh boxes anymore because it was not necessary.
Since he had found the formula for genetic modification, he would only need to study this formula in a deeper manner.
He began preparing the chemicals once again and adding reagents according to strict requirements.
It was not a joke. One microliter less or one microliter more could possibly produce results that were poles apart.
He prepared 50 portions at once and spent less than 20 minutes doing that.
Then, he began to spray the paddy leaves again.
When he was done spraying the paddy leaves, he cleaned out all the mesh boxes containing the aphids thoroughly, leaving only one mesh box and also the healthy-growing aphids inside it.
Then, he placed the paddy leaves into the clean mesh boxes and used a pair of small forceps to place the aphids cautiously into the mesh boxes.
When everything was done, Zhou Wen checked the time and found that it was five o’clock.
He stood up, rubbed his palms, and prayed, “You are heaven’s favorite animal. Go, Pikachu!”
[Accelerate experiment.]
Suddenly, a gush of mysterious energy enshrouded the area above the mesh boxes in the laboratory. In the next second, the aphids inside the boxes had already completed the reproduction of one generation.
Zhou Wen immediately checked on the mesh boxes.
Mesh Box 1. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6… 190.
“Whoa damn…” Zhou Wen almost leaped up in excitement when he was done counting. He was the chosen one, just as expected.
The number reduced by 25-30% on average, as compared to the 20 prior experiments.
Mesh Box 2. 185.
Mesh Box 3. 164.
Mesh Box 4. 171.
…
Zhou Wen counted ten boxes continuously and found that none of the quantity of rice root aphids in the boxes was more than 200.
Moreover, just like he had expected, the rice root aphids inside each box contained a large number of deformed aphids.
This had proven that the heavy metal chemicals he used were genuinely effective in affecting gene inheritance.
However, it was still too early for him to be delighted now. He still needed to continue to observe the reproduction situation of the next generation of the rice root aphids.
This was because the first generation aphids were deformed as a result of chemicals, but it may not necessarily mean that the next generation would be deformed as well.
As long as one of the aphid’s genes were not affected by the heavy metal pesticide, it would still be capable of reproducing healthy aphid offsprings and continue to damage agricultural products.
Then, the genetic modification would be considered a failure.
Thus, the next task would be for him to remove the unaffected aphids from the boxes and continued the second generation experiment.
At half-past five in the evening, Sun Jing came over to ask Zhou Wen out for dinner again. She saw that the computer in the laboratory was still turned on, so she asked, “Are you going to burn the midnight oil again?”
Zhou Wen answered, “Mmhmm!”
“Even though you are still young, you still need to take care of your health.”
“I know…”
After dinner, Zhou Wen pushed on with his work by starting the second generation experiment.
It was different from before, as there was no need for him to spray the paddy leaves with chemicals anymore.
This was because the ‘mothers’ of these aphids had already consumed the chemicals, and their genes were already altered. The genetic inheritance had already been set, so even if they were to consume uncontaminated paddy leaves now, the offspring they produced would still suffer from a high death rate and missing body parts.
On the other hand, this was the goal of the genetic modification!
By eliminating the step of concocting the sprayed pesticide, it saved him a lot of time. It had only taken half an hour before the result of the second generation was produced. The genes of the aphids were really altered!
The number of aphids reproduced from the second generation aphids reduced significantly, and many of the aphids were deformed.
“Hah-hah-hah…”
Zhou Wen continued the third generation experiment in excitement.
The result was still as he had predicted.
Then, he continued with the fourth generation and fifth generation…
He conducted five generations’ worth of experiments in total and did not encounter any unwanted surprises.
The result was certain!
…
…
One week later, on the evening of the 11th of May, which was a Friday, Wang Huiyao was having dinner when his phone rang.
He took it out to find an unknown number calling him.
“This is Wang Huiyao speaking. Who’s on the line?”
“Hello, professor. I’m Zhou Wen.”
“What’s the matter?”
“Professor, I’ve been conducting research in modifying rice root aphid’s genes during this period of time…”
“Cough, cough, cough…” Wang Huiyao choked after listening to Zhou Wen. “Wha? What? You’ve been researching rice root aphid’s gene modification?”
Upon saying that, Wang Huiyao felt like he was at a loss of whether to cry or laugh.
Was Zhou Wen even using his brain when he spoke?
Did he even know what genetic modification meant?
It was a tremendous systematic project that required a large amount of expenditure, including countless manpower, finance, and time, just to give him the chance of a slight gleam of success.
He was just an undergraduate student… What did he have that enabled him to perform the modification? His mouth?
What a joke!
“Yes, Professor Wang. Through my effort in conducting this research during this period of time, I discovered some…”
Wang Huiyao did not let Zhou Wen finish his sentence before he interrupted by saying, “Alright, if you don’t have anything else, I’m going to hang up now.”
As he was speaking, Wang Huiyao was preparing to hang up the call.
Zhou Wen hastily called out, “Hold on, Professor Wang. I’ve really made a huge discovery. Through my genetic modification technique, the reproduction rate of rice root aphids reduced by 30%, on average. I’ve already sent the thesis to your email. If you don’t believe me, give it a read.”
30% was already Zhou Wen’s extremely conservative estimate. In reality, the reproduction rate dropped by at least 40% if he were to add in those deformed aphids.
“Noted…”
Upon saying that, Wang Huiyao hung up the call impatiently.