"Straightforward, honest, and just the right amount of dedication to her work... She really is a good girl."
Samui watched Kurotsuchi's departing figure and gave her approving assessment.
Lin Qing smiled and poured her a cup of tea. "You're getting more and more like a leader—or an elder."
Samui accepted the cup and shrugged, not refuting Lin Qing's words.
Ever since taking on this job, the number of people and matters she dealt with each week exceeded everything she had encountered in the previous twenty-odd years combined.
Over time, the way she spoke and the way she judged people had changed without her even realizing it.
Still, Samui had never considered herself one of those so-called "people in power."
She had always been rather cold by nature. Compared to dealing with people, she preferred carrying out missions in silence.
If it had not been for the village, Samui might have resigned from this position long ago and gone back to being an ordinary ninja.
"No, not just for the village..."
She adjusted her glasses.
The long hours of paperwork had gradually gotten the former female ninja used to wearing glasses. Her beautiful blue-green eyes silently watched Lin Qing's profile through the lenses.
"How is the Scholar Recruitment Plan progressing?"
Lin Qing's question interrupted Samui's quiet observation.
The so-called "Scholar Recruitment Plan" was a talent acquisition initiative born after all five great nations came under Lin Qing's rule, forcibly tearing down the barriers that had once divided the academic world.
In plain terms:
Gather the outstanding scientists from every major nation at the Research Institute.
People used to say that science had no borders, while scientists did.
Now, the borders were gone.
The Research Institute currently had four major research projects:
First, aerospace, with landing on the moon as its foremost