Chapter 42 (1/2)

“That’s simply absurd!” Wang Huiyao could not refrain from making a remark.

His wife asked him what happened, and he could not hold back from complaining about it for a brief moment.

Upon listening to his complaint, Wang Huiyao’s wife asked, “Why don’t you just take a look in case what he said is the truth?”

“How’s that possible? The probability is lower than winning 10 million in a lottery.”

With that said, Wang Huiyao’s wife refused to speak anymore.

However, Wang Huiyao was still not done venting. He said furiously, “Young people these days are impetuous. The one who knows the most says the least; empty vessels make the most noise.”

“Alright, alright, eat. Does anyone not live through a young age in their past?”

“I didn’t have the courage to be so boastful when I was younger!”

“…”

After the meal, Wang Huiyao laid on the sofa and rested for a while.

For some unknown reason, Zhou Wen’s words reverberated in his mind. He could not refrain from turning on his phone.

He wanted to witness with his own eyes how ‘exciting’ Zhou Wen’s thesis actually was.

‘The Genetic Modification Technique of Rice Root Aphids’.

Wang Huiyao became infuriated as soon as he read the thesis title.

He studied rice root aphids for most of his life. Even though he had always done it in the name of biotechnology, the people from the profession were well aware that it was but an act of deceit.

Of course, this applied to the entire nation.

It was precisely due to this reason that he loathed the person that made a fool of himself with this before him because he knew too well of how difficult it was to perform genetic modification!

There was no research center in the country that could truly achieve any significant results.

Firstly, it was because it was too difficult such that it was almost impossible to succeed.

Secondly, the expenditure and gain were not proportional. If one had the energy, one might as well research a biochemical pesticide formula in a research center.

On the other hand, he did that precisely in the past. He successfully sold quite a number of chemical formulas continuously over the years as well.

Wang Huiyao screened through the passage swiftly.

It was a dull opening, and Wang Huiyao could even notice the familiarity of the linguistic structure. If he was right, he believed that the opening was plagiarized, only that the words were reorganized.

“That’s all, and he still has the audacity to talk about genetic modification?” Wang Huiyao sneered at it in contempt.

Even though the unspoken rule dictated that it was considered a pass when an undergraduate student’s plagiarism rate was less than 30% for the entire thesis, he believed that the rest of the thesis would not be better since the opening was already plagiarized.

Nevertheless, he continued to read.

“Huh?”

It came as a surprise to Wang Huiyao that the rest of the passage was not made up of long paragraphs of hypothetical narration, which was commonly seen in a thesis, but it consisted of the experiment’s process and results. Moreover, there was a large number of experiment photos attached.

Wang Huiyao’s brows furrowed tightly.

He was just glancing through the passage swiftly in the beginning, but gradually, he began to read paragraph by paragraph slowly.

Then, he read sentence by sentence.

As he was reading, he began to re-read the parts that he had merely scanned through earlier.

Then, he studied the photos of a myriad of different rice root aphid forms attached to the passage and compared it to the data.

Wang Huiyao’s eyes widened more and more, and his breathing became more and more rapid. His fingers holding the phone began to tremble as well. He muttered to himself, “This… this is impossible…”

…

It was an extremely busy week for Zhou Wen as he spent most of his time in the library looking up all sorts of literature reviews, writing his thesis, and simultaneously preparing for the oral examination happening next.

His thesis was no ordinary thesis since it had to be a score of 10 to succeed the mission; such a score was just a little less than achieving the rank worthy of being published to CNS.

In simpler terms, it would be on par with the standards of Nieng Yan and Shi Yigong.

A thesis like this would certainly arouse a storm in the Biology profession in the country if it was published.

Yet, it would truly set the world on fire if news about him completing the genetic modification of rice root aphid by himself spread. As a result, he not only needed to make up a story but also needed to find one to two side characters to corroborate his story.

The genetic modification technique itself was relatively simple in comparison. Anyhow, the modification was already a success, so his statement would be considered the truth.

If he were to say that, he stumbled and dropped the test tube accidentally such that the heavy metal pesticide from the test tube spilled onto the paddy leaves and allowed him to discover the formula accidentally… Who could give any objection to that?

As a result, the process was not important but the result was more important. However, in order to prevent drawing in the suspicion of too many people, he still needed to ‘artistically polish’ the development process.

He had already come up with a rough mental note by now, so Zhou Wen returned to his room on his own after he gave Wang Huiyao a call.

He had been staying on the campus for the past few days because he was busy searching for information and writing up the thesis. However, he was planning to move to his new place tonight.

He returned to the room just in time to meet Deer Maiden and Liu Yukun.

Deer Maiden noticed the sling bag and trolley luggage on Zhou Wen’s bed, so he said to Zhou Wen upon noticing his presence, “Have you rented a house outside?”

Zhou Wen nodded. “Mmhmm, it’s in Maple Leaf.”

Liu Yukun joked by saying, “The rental at Maple Leaf is so expensive; can you afford it with your measly salary?”

“It’s fine. I’m sharing the house with others.”