Chapter 268: Campus Legend Stories

"To be honest, I'm quite curious about your ability to communicate with animals."

Lin Ying glanced at Fuli Master in her arms and spoke to Wang Qiqi.

"It's not much of a secret—most of us develop this ability later in life, except for those born with exceptionally high spiritual affinity. Take me and Jin Qianbao as an example: at first, I couldn't understand his speech at all."

"But after years of close companionship and injections of specially formulated Spirit Granule serum, I can now perfectly comprehend the meaning behind Jin Qianbao's words."

Wang Qiqi led Lin Ying inside, answering her questions as they walked.

These matters are information most people cannot access and should not be made public.

But Lin Ying is not among them—whether due to the Lin family of Xiaguo's proactive policies or the overseas Lin family's 1. billion euro donation, both have greatly advanced the domestic Spirit Granule research project.

More importantly, Lin Ying holds the status of Fuli Master's guardian.

Some things can be spoken of after all.

"To put it simply, our foundational research on Spirit Granules is still shallow. Much of our related research stems from archaeology, then iterated by analogy—do you understand?"

Wang Qiqi continued: "Whether we or the famous overseas Longevity Club, we all derive our knowledge from excavating and organizing ancient relics, then building upon predecessors' work. The difference is, we dig up our own ancestors' tombs; they dig up their neighbor Old Wang's grave."

"Archaeology?" Wang Qiqi's answer left Lin Ying and Fuli Master bewildered.

"Mm."

Wang Qiqi nodded: "On the application side, Spirit Granule technology is based on current scientific development—common items like adhesive, acid mist, and fog are products of biochemical synthesis."

"But for foundational Spirit Granule research, current technology can only rely on archaeology. These are practices accumulated by our ancestors through experience, though they never formalized them into a complete discipline."

Wang Qiqi looked at Lin Ying and said: "Our current location, the Emerging Nongxue Academy, is the cradle of future Spirit Granule biologists and agronomists. Within this 3. -square-kilometer campus, nearly thirty thousand talents have been supplied to the related industry chain."

"However, because the academy's disciplines are so niche, it struggles to attract large numbers of students—unless they're certain they want to pursue this path—even with academicians on staff."

When mentioning enrollment rates, Wang Qiqi's expression showed a hint of helplessness and quiet resentment.

Broadly speaking, the Emerging Nongxue Academy offers only agronomy, zoology, and resources and environmental science.

Food safety and engineering may be added in the future.

These disciplines are far too niche to compete with popular STEM, medicine, or law programs.

Without over twenty agronomy academicians on staff, enrollment at the Emerging Nongxue Academy would be dire—combined, the zoology and agronomy departments have only two thousand students this year.

Zoology has over a thousand; agronomy and environmental science together have just over a thousand.

Of these two thousand, it's uncertain how many will actually find jobs in the relevant industry after graduation.

Across all five campuses, we might barely scrape together ten thousand.

The Emerging Nongxue Academy doesn't participate in rankings, can't reveal its academic strengths, sets high standards, and can only rely on academicians' prestige for recruitment.

Every graduate of the Emerging Nongxue Academy might end up as a lumberjack or forest ranger.

Wang Qiqi was desperate for new colleagues.

Throughout all of Changancheng and the Qinling Mountains,

excluding support staff, there are only three teams of six lumberjacks total, and seven teams of twenty-one forest rangers.

Please sign up! I promise I won't send you to live deep in the wilderness—you'll get housing after ten years, minimum retirement pension of ten thousand, and your medical insurance card will receive exactly the same amount as your salary every month.

…………

Though Wang Qiqi longed for new colleagues, the enrollment difficulties were beyond her control.

Both subjective and objective factors were at play.

"To our left is the teaching building, but it's currently closed. Behind it is the Nongke Academy's laboratory, where certain plants requiring specific environments are cultivated or observed."

Wang Qiqi drove an electric sightseeing vehicle, guiding Fuli Master and Lin Ying around campus.

The teaching and laboratory buildings sit on a small island in the center of a massive artificial lake.

The only access to this teaching and lab zone is a single bridge—no other exits exist.

In the lake, An Sheng could even see carnivorous fish with sharp fangs and teeth.

They must have been starving for a long time—when they spotted the sightseeing vehicle pass, they surfaced, eyes glowing green, staring at the electric car.

"There are carnivorous fish in the lake—any spies or 007s lurking in the lab?"

An Sheng looked at Wang Qiqi and asked curiously.

"Carnivorous fish? Those might be assignments from our neighboring zoology students—probably leftovers from graduation that weren't properly retrieved."

Wang Qiqi's answer was exactly what An Sheng expected.

The Emerging Nongxue Academy has two departments; due to historical grudges, they're physically separated by barriers, with only dormitories connected.

But this artificial lake is the only area without barriers.

It makes sense that the neighboring students' assignments would swim over and bite the Nongxue students.

"You just let these assignments roam free? Aren't you afraid someone'll poison the river?" An Sheng muttered.

"Generally impossible—this lake is the water source for Nongxue students' experimental fields. Anyone who deliberately pollutes it must pay full compensation."

"The cost of one lake's water plus cleanup fees—and since it's public, all payments must be invoiced. Just thinking about it is terrifying."

Wang Qiqi smiled: "We explain all this during orientation."

"Can we visit the female dorms and cafeteria? I'm more interested in those areas," An Sheng said.

Dorm conditions affect sleep quality.

Cafeteria facilities affect nutritional balance.

Though not a student himself, An Sheng still cared deeply—these things directly affected him.

And,

having never lived on campus before, An Sheng had heard campus legends.

Like how, during summer power outages, bikini-clad senior girls would sprint through the corridors of the opposite dorm.

Or how, at night, faint weeping could be heard from the top of the female dorm, alongside tales of the "Soul-Blocking Spirit" appearing in the woods.

An Sheng had only ever listened.

Classmates described them vividly, even bluntly claiming there were senior sisters who gave out "gifts."

You treat them to food, drinks, and fun, and they'd treat you to the same—late at night.

And in the alleyways of the university district at night, every girl was half-naked and starving.

An Sheng, a lifelong bachelor in two lifetimes, didn't believe it.

He just thought the guy was telling fantasy stories.

(End of chapter)