He gazed into the night. Gentle moonlight fell over the forest, where those human faces had turned into fruit, and coiled lengths of hair had become ever-growing rings.
Doctor Gao had not really said much, yet the team members in the conference room felt something was terribly wrong. Cold sweat began to prickle their backs.
Even the members of the Ethics Oversight Group, who hovered at the very bottom of the moral spectrum, felt uneasy. They dared not dwell on the meaning behind Doctor Gao's words.
"Are you saying you want to cut down all those trees?" a young team member in the corner asked. Every pair of eyes instantly fixed on him.
The old professor coughed and closed his book. "We've been discussing this for a long time. Sitting here agonizing over it and offering impractical ideas won't help us resolve the forest problem. Tonight, we'll go take a look at the forest as originally planned."
"I've only just arrived, and you're already leaving?"
"What else should we do? Stay here listening to your sleep talk?" Doctor Bu's assistant harbored considerable hostility toward Doctor Gao. Perhaps he believed that, with Doctor Bu missing, he was the most likely successor. Doctor Gao's arrival had shattered his pleasant fantasy.
"We have nothing against you. The situation really is urgent."
The instructors seated at the front claimed they had nothing against Doctor Gao, yet their actions shut him out completely. They rose in twos and threes and left the conference room.
Doctor Gao stopped no one. Only when he and Banban were the last ones in the room did Chen Bing come over. "You have a long, hard road ahead. Establishing yourself here won't be easy."
The police had already done all they could to help. From here on, Doctor Gao would