"Alright, that should do it."
Blanca tucked the covers around Mobius, who couldn't even sleep in peace, then turned to Xu Ziling and said,
"Thank you for coming to help manage the research institute... For now, let Doctor Mobius sleep here for a while. She hasn't closed her eyes for several days, ever since the moment she discovered you..."
"Is that so..."
Xu Ziling nodded thoughtfully, then suggested,
"Senior Blanca, while Miss Elysia is away cooking, how about we go out and chat for a while? I imagine you still have plenty of questions about me. As it happens, I have plenty of questions too, so we can treat this as a belated self-introduction."
"Mm... Alright, then follow me."
Blanca adjusted the notebook she had been clutching ever since Mobius had fainted from anger and said to Xu Ziling,
"After the Doctor passed out... there are some things I'll have to ask you about myself. Some of them may involve private matters, so please forgive me."
"It's fine."
Xu Ziling smiled and shrugged.
"Let's just consider it an exchange of information."
Hearing this, Blanca let out a long breath, feeling somewhat relieved inside. Fortunately, the one who had emerged from the meteorite was someone capable of normal conversation, rather than some kind of rampaging monster... Otherwise, with Mobius unconscious, Blanca truly wouldn't have known what to do.
And judging by his manner, Xu Ziling was also an easygoing person. This discovery undoubtedly put Blanca somewhat more at ease.
However, when Blanca arrived at the main laboratory and surveyed the disorderly instruments and the experimental reports scattered across the floor after the earlier fight between Mobius and Elysia, she really couldn't find a single place suitable for having a conversation.
"Uh..."
Blanca looked at Xu Ziling awkwardly and said,
"Sorry, but Doctor Mobius and I have always lived like this at headquarters... The funding after we came here was extremely limited, so we couldn't rent a larger research institute... I'm sorry you had to see this."
"It's fine."
Xu Ziling pushed up a nonexistent pair of glasses. Compared with the place where he had lived as a wage slave before transmigrating, this place was genuinely quite clean.
At the very least, not having time to tidy up and being too lazy to tidy up were two entirely different things.
"Aren't the laboratories of those genius scientists in the novels and comics I've read all like this?"
Like that lobster-headed doctor who refused to reveal his name.
Hearing Xu Ziling's words, Blanca looked surprised and asked,
"You know about comics and novels?"
"Isn't that perfectly normal?"
Xu Ziling shrugged.
"The Doctor must have told you about my identity, right? In the era I lived in... things like novels and comics could be found everywhere. I even wrote some myself. It was just that after signing a contract and getting published, my first-day subscriptions were twelve... Ahem, let's not talk about such painful memories. Do you have any questions, Senior Blanca?"
As for the "pre-pre-civilization" identity Xu Ziling had fabricated for himself... it couldn't entirely be called an offhand lie. After all, the great Mr. Lu Xun had once said that as long as you couldn't prove something was false, then it was true.
After putting that principle into practice, Xu Ziling had created an identity for himself that, despite being full of suspicious points, was almost impossible to disprove after his transmigration.
Blanca blinked while holding her notebook. The information Xu Ziling had revealed was far from insignificant. She hurriedly recorded his words in the notebook, planning to hand them all over to Mobius after she woke up.
"Mm... Since you know about novels and comics, our conversation will be much easier from here on."
Blanca held the pen between her teeth and tapped it against the notebook. Then she pointed one finger at Xu Ziling and said,
"Ziling... Mm, I'll call you that. From your initial exchange with the Doctor, you should know that the time period we're in now isn't the era of the civilization you came from, right? Hmm... Although you haven't shown much emotion about it, I'll temporarily assume that you've accepted this fact.
"I'm going to ask you some questions about your era, and you must have many questions about ours as well. Will you ask me first, or should I ask you first?"
"You're my senior, so you ask first. I prefer being proactive."
Xu Ziling smiled, then moved two little stools out from the disorderly pile of instruments nearby—little stools from one of Wang Wei's poems—and gestured for Blanca to sit down.
"Mm... After we finish exchanging questions, let's tidy this place up together."
Blanca nodded and said,
"Then I'll ask first... How many years ago was your era?"
"Sorry, I don't know that either."
Xu Ziling shook his head helplessly and recited the lines he had already prepared in his mind.
"When I woke up, you were the first people I saw. The hibernation pod that was originally meant to wake me in the future must have malfunctioned somehow and failed to wake me on schedule. I remained asleep until you discovered me."
"Hmm... If we compare a hibernation pod to Mu's medical pod... it would take at least one hundred thousand years for it to completely undergo natural disintegration..."
Blanca thought for a moment before continuing,
"Then you must be from at least one hundred thousand years ago... Of course, we can't rule out the possibility that you and the hibernation pod became separated at some point. However, neither Doctor Mobius nor I are archaeologists. More importantly, I'd like you to answer this: how did you survive alone underground for so long without the nutritional supply from the hibernation pod?"
"Hmm..."
Xu Ziling thought for a moment and said,
"Senior Blanca, I may not be able to give you an accurate answer to that question, but I can tell you my guess."
Blanca nodded, signaling for him to continue.
"Senior Blanca, have you heard of tardigrades?"
Xu Ziling thought for a moment before saying,
"They're organisms that can survive for an extremely long time without eating or drinking... And after the hibernation pod broke down, my body must have autonomously transformed its DNA into something resembling that of a tardigrade, greatly extending my survival time.
"My brain's useless thought processes were also reduced, which was why I was delirious when I first woke up and knew only to follow my instincts and replenish my energy... If I frightened you back then, please allow me to offer you a belated apology, Senior Blanca."
As he spoke, Xu Ziling bowed deeply to Blanca. The depth of his emotion and the precision of his movement were such that even a genuine old gentleman from London would have praised him as a professional.
As for Xu Ziling, he thought that if she also had a Dog Boss who was bound to be strung up from a streetlamp sooner or later, she would eventually develop the same passive skill. Even the famous American General MacArthur... Ahem, sorry, wrong channel.
Returning to the matter at hand, being treated with such respect by Xu Ziling made Blanca feel somewhat embarrassed. However, she didn't forget her professional duties. She pushed up the glasses on the bridge of her nose to hide her fluster, then said,
"Mr. Xu Ziling, I understand what you're saying, but... it seems you've left out the most crucial point?
"That is, how exactly did you alter your biological DNA while in deep hibernation and completely passive? You even maintained your human form after the transformation... Both Doctor Mobius and I have bachelor's degrees in biology, but your theory seems to violate the very foundations of biology..."
Xu Ziling, who had long since guessed that Blanca would ask this, smiled mysteriously and said,
"Senior Blanca, have you heard of... () omnipotent and () weak and powerless?"
Before you continue