Plastic Friendship, Child of Destiny

After dealing with Qu Li insincerely for a while, Yan Anqing enthusiastically put his arm around his shoulder. "Little Qu... there's no time to lose. Let's go write the application now."

"Coincidentally, I don't really understand the standard format either. Could you help me write it later?"

"We're friends, aren't we? You help me, I help you, and we progress together, right?"

Qu Li couldn't catch his breath and almost suffocated.

Friends...

Friends my ass!

I don't have a shameless friend like you!

Academician Zhao Hongyun was still nearby, so Qu Li could only force a smile and try his best to maintain his image as an honest and reliable young gentleman. "Don't worry, I'll handle it."

Watching their interaction, Zhao Hongyun felt gratified, as if recalling his own youthful days. He sighed faintly, "The friendship of young people comes so quickly... You two chat slowly, I won't intrude with my old bones."

With that, he shook his head and left.

"I have other matters to attend to as well. Goodbye."

Yan Anqing pushed Qu Li away, his expression changing in an instant. With a clear sense of distance, he said, "Don't forget to write the application. I need the lab."

After speaking, he pulled Jiang Xinyue and left.

This sudden change of attitude, like burning bridges before crossing the river, caused Qu Li's smile to stiffen on his face.

"What the hell..."

Qu Li took a deep breath, using all his willpower to chew on the profanity that had reached his lips before swallowing it back down.

Image!

Mind your image!

He was almost driven to madness by that scoundrel.

In the lounge.

Yan Anqing looked at Jiang Xinyue and said seriously, "I owe you one."

If it weren't for this junior student's help, he would have almost certainly missed this opportunity.

According to his original plan, it would have taken some time to get a dedicated laboratory.

So, he would remember this favor from Jiang Xinyue.

"You're too kind!"

Jiang Xinyue stared intently at Yan Anqing. "Speaking of which, Senior, are you applying for a dedicated laboratory because you have a new project?"

"Mm."

Yan Anqing had no intention of hiding anything and calmly said, "After the Blood Moon, it wasn't just humans who developed golden eyes. I happened to discover a mutated white mouse by chance."

Hidden within his plain words was a fortuitous opportunity that would drive countless scientists to madness.

Jiang Xinyue was stunned for a moment, then looked at him thoughtfully and said with a playful grin, "Thank you for your trust, Senior!"

Yan Anqing shook his head, fully understanding what she meant.

The academic world only recognized achievements, not people.

For the sake of an experiment or the first publication of a paper, countless mentor-student relationships had soured, and friends had become mortal enemies.

Yan Anqing telling her this "little secret" had nothing to do with trust; he was simply overconfident.

After binding with the game soul that modified reality, Yan Anqing had countless ways to eliminate someone without a trace.

Under normal circumstances, he didn't like to test human nature.

His conversation with Jiang Xinyue could only be described as—a fortunate coincidence.

"I said I owe you a favor,"

Yan Anqing looked at Jiang Xinyue expressionlessly. "When the results are out, you'll be the second signatory on the paper."

Nowadays, most scientific experiments in China were team efforts.

It was common practice to list four or five names for a single achievement, and sometimes even fill an entire page with names.

It represented fame, reputation, and ability.

The scientific field did not prioritize seniority.

Those who couldn't produce results, no matter how high their academic qualifications or how long their tenure, couldn't get promoted.

There were policies, and there were countermeasures.

Many scholars who were not good at practical operations and researchers lacking creativity and dedication began to focus on personal connections.

When a new project emerged, they would provide the person in charge with a certain amount of funding and material support in exchange for authorship.

Even being the fourth author counted as accumulating achievements.

Jiang Xinyue understood the intricacies of this, but she had never been involved in such practices.

It looked like Yan Anqing intended to use the second author's credit to repay Jiang Xinyue for speaking up for him earlier.

She wasn't a rigid girl, otherwise, she wouldn't have spoken up for Yan Anqing just now.

"Then I'll wait for your good news."

Jiang Xinyue smiled mischievously, "I'll keep your secret."

"Also, I wanted to ask, are we considered friends now?"

"Not the superficial kind of friendship you have with Qu Li, but the relationship between you and that useless genius..."

Yan Anqing chuckled, "You mean Xie Zhe? That guy, although he's childish, cowardly, paranoid, chuunibyo, and neurotic, he has many good qualities too, for example..."

His smile gradually turned awkward.

"For example..."

He gave up.

He really couldn't think of any good qualities that guy had.

The two stared at each other.

After a long silence, Yan Anqing said faintly, "He once saved my life."

People who beat around the bush usually meant something very simple—a polite refusal.

Jiang Xinyue wasn't ugly; in fact, she was quite beautiful. The only problem was that Yan Anqing's criteria for choosing friends were a bit unusual.

Moreover, after completing the first part of the Main Quest, besides the soul-binding of his golden finger, the newly unlocked "Cross-Sectional Mapping" perspective had a profound impact on Yan Anqing.

Now, every time he saw someone with good physical appearance, regardless of gender, he would subconsciously use the [Cross-Sectional Mapping] function to observe their internal body.

Muscles, bones, nerves, organs, blood vessels, lymphatic tissues.

They say you can't judge a book by its cover, but Yan Anqing could truly see the "beauty" within.

This was by no means a good habit.

Unfortunately, due to the tyranny of his obsessive-compulsive disorder, he had gradually developed this unhealthy habit...

After hearing Yan Anqing's words, Jiang Xinyue was stunned for a moment.

She took out a pen and a notepad from her pocket, scribbled a few lines, tore it off, and stuffed it into Yan Anqing's hand before skipping away cheerfully.

Yan Anqing looked at the note in his hand. It had a sticking-out-tongue emoji and three words written on it.

"Nyah nyah nyah."

Yan Anqing chuckled wryly.

This crazy girl...

So mischievous.

Qu Li believed that helping Yan Anqing out of obligation was like eating a bowl of cilantro that he was forced to consume.

Was he going to pick out each sprig of cilantro, chew it carefully, and savor it, or swallow it whole?

For someone who hated the stuff, it wasn't a question worth pondering.

A short pain was better than a long one.

The next day, Yan Anqing obtained access to a private laboratory at Moju Ke.

The so-called "golden-eyed test subject" did not exist before today.

Yet, Yan Anqing could conjure one up with a mere flick of his wrist.

It was just a cover.

The purpose was to draw out the "Fuxi Cells" he had previously modified, which possessed the "Superpower Cavity" structure.

This would be his inaugural shot to announce his presence in the scientific community.

Working backward from the result to the process was always the simplest approach.

It was like in mystery novels or Werewolf, knowing the outcome beforehand and then searching for the chain of evidence to reverse-engineer the logic was merely a physical exertion, not requiring too much brainpower.

Conducting experiments, writing papers.

Time flew like water, and the sun and moon sped like a shuttle.

In the blink of an eye, half a month had passed.

"Experimental Report Summary on Non-Human Golden-Eyed Life Forms and Fuxi Cells."

After reading this freshly minted paper, Jiang Xinyue smacked her lips, looking at Yan Anqing as if he were a monster.

"To find those few mutated cells among the approximately three hundred billion normal cells of this test subject..."

What kind of persistence was this?

And what kind of luck!

Jiang Xinyue felt that Yan Anqing, who was by her side, was the Child of Destiny for this era.

What is a Child of Destiny?

Just like Emperor Liu Xiu of the Han Dynasty, who restored the empire during the Guangwu Restoration.

Back then, Liu Xiu, with only ten thousand soldiers, faced Wang Mang's army of four hundred thousand. Their training and morale were far inferior to the enemy's, and it seemed like they were on the verge of a complete collapse and the dynasty's downfall.

The result…

A meteorite descended from the heavens and directly smashed into Wang Mang's military camp.

Let's look at the records from that time…

"There was a great thunder and wind, roof tiles flew everywhere, rain poured down like a torrent, the Zhi River overflowed, tigers and leopards trembled in fear, soldiers scrambled to escape, and tens of thousands drowned. The water ceased to flow."

Tsk.

Lightning, storms, meteorites – everything seemed to be targeting Wang Mang. He was forced to win this battle that decided the fate of the empire, giving the impression of a preordained victory.

If Liu Xiu, who even Heaven helped, wasn't a Child of Destiny, then what was he?

When Yan Anqing had made promises to Jiang Xinyue before, she hadn't really taken them to heart.

After all, among the heinous death row inmates, there were a few golden-eyed experimental subjects who had been stripped of their human rights for life.

It had been a month since the "Golden Pupil Syndrome," and countries around the world hadn't produced any research results.

In fact, many people believed that apart from the change in their eye color, golden-eyed individuals had no unusual physical characteristics and therefore held little research value.