Chapter 1069: Building the Laboratory

What it wanted to know, if spoken aloud, would very likely earn it a scolding.

But Broken-Waist Wolf wanted to know, and its idol had opened his mouth again, so Xia Qing could only point at the brain of the corpse on the scanning bed and ask the professional standing at the pinnacle of Blue Star's pyramid for guidance. "Third Brother, Broken-Waist Wolf wants to know—can a wolf that has had its prefrontal cortex cut off recover its health through treatment? Not this one that's already dead, but other wolves that have had it removed."

Seeing the man and wolf before him flash nearly identical smiles, Zhang San did his best to keep his emotions in check and asked, "Why would it come up with an idea like that?"

Xia Qing had just opened her mouth when Zhang San cut her off. "Don't rush to answer something you don't know or aren't sure about. The human medical knowledge it has, the information contained in human language, and the human thinking logic behind that language—all of it came from you. That's why you can accurately guess what it's trying to express. Think carefully about what knowledge you taught it that would lead it to associate a removed cerebral cortex with the possibility of recovery."

This…

Xia Qing's eyes rolled upward as she quickly searched her mind for videos she and Broken-Waist Wolf had studied together, and soon found the key point. "It watched a video on skin grafting for treating external injuries, so it thinks that if the cerebral cortex is cut off, it can also be treated and recovered by grafting on a patch."

Zhang San was silent for a few seconds before giving a clear answer. "A removed prefrontal cortex cannot be restored by skin grafting."

Broken-Waist Wolf raised a paw and nudged Xia Qing beside it.

Xia Qing braced herself and asked, "Why not?"

Zhang San glanced at the bookshelf, didn't find any specialized book on skin grafting, and casually pulled out one with color images of the brain. He explained to this brain-domain evolved wolf that Xia Qing had led astray, "The cerebral cortex is not skin."

"Look, this is the cerebral cortex." Zhang San showed Broken-Waist Wolf the wrinkled surface layer of the brain in the picture, then pointed at Xia Qing's face. "The layer of skin on Xia Qing's face is called skin."

Xia Qing…

Idol, you have some on your face too—no need to use mine.

"The cerebral cortex is a layer of gray matter. Gray matter is formed by neuron cell bodies and their dendrites clustering together. The cerebral cortex is very soft and is protected by the skull." Zhang San pointed at Xia Qing's face again. "Skin is the layer covering the body's surface. Its function is to protect the body, prevent water loss, and sense external stimuli. Broken-Waist, do you understand?"

Broken-Waist Wolf stared thoughtfully at Xia Qing's face for a moment, then slowly revealed its two little fang tips.

Seeing Broken-Waist Wolf being so promising, Xia Qing praised it out of habit. "Broken-Waist, you're really too smart. You're truly the Queen my lord's favorite evolved wolf, truly an evolved wolf standing at the pinnacle of Blue Star's pyramid!"

Upon receiving the praise, Broken-Waist Wolf immediately revealed four little fang tips.

Having just felt a small sense of accomplishment, Zhang San didn't want to stay a moment longer. "That wolf's corpse will melt soon. If you need to keep preserving it, you must put it back in the freezer. What do you plan to do with it?"

If not for what he had seen and heard tonight, Zhang San wouldn't have bothered with such a small matter, but now he couldn't rest easy without asking.

Because he realized he could no longer use normal human thinking logic to reason about this bizarre human standing before him who would show skin-grafting videos to an evolved wolf.

Xia Qing asked, "Third Brother, do you still need this corpse as evidence when sentencing Peng Yuancai?"

Zhang San replied, "No need. I've already preserved image photographs and video evidence."

Xia Qing answered, "This wolf was the companion of the old wolf that went to the Western Evolution Forest to deliver medicine. When the old wolf comes back, I'll ask how it wants to handle this. If it has no objections, I'll burn the corpse."

What if it does have objections?

Zhang San was fed up and didn't want to deal with it anymore. His face darkened as he sped up his speech. "Your house, especially this laboratory, needs a thorough disinfection."

Evolved microorganisms were the main cause of illness and death during the Calamity Years, and Xia Qing never let her guard down in this regard. It was just that today accidents kept happening and she was too busy to clean up in time, which led her idol to a misunderstanding. "Understood. I disinfect every day, and I clean around the house frequently too. We rarely study corpses—this is only the second time."

Twice and you still think that's few?!

Zhang San's face darkened as he wiped his fingers with a disinfecting wipe. "The laboratory and the living quarters must be separated. You have two choices: first, build a laboratory and move all the equipment in; second, send the CT scanner back to my territory, and the two of you will no longer study imaging-related courses."

Broken-Waist Wolf immediately stood in front of its beloved equipment, refusing to let Zhang San take it away.

Xia Qing made her choice. "Third Brother, I'll clear the qiang grass in the territory and then get ready to build a laboratory. Territory Five fires bricks in autumn—I'll partner with them to fire a batch."

When Broken-Waist Wolf first brought a dead rabbit in and scanned it with the CT machine, Xia Qing had warned the fellow and decided to build a laboratory. It was just that she was too busy and hadn't found the time or gathered enough building materials.

"Brick structures don't meet the standard. Tomorrow morning, complete the site selection for a laboratory of no less than 100 square meters, then send me pictures of the laboratory area. I'll have someone design a laboratory with four rooms for you, and move the equipment here in as soon as possible. Until you and this wolf have studied the laboratory safety management system and passed my acceptance inspection, you cannot use the laboratory."

F-Four rooms?!

Xia Qing instantly perked up and solemnly negotiated with her idol. "Third Brother, look, I only have this little bit of stuff. One professional laboratory would be enough to fit it all."

Zhang San irritably pointed at the equipment beside them. "What is this?"

"A CT scanner."

"What is its working principle?"

"It uses rays to scan living organisms and form images." Xia Qing understood what her idol meant. "Song Ge said this CT scanner uses high-efficiency shielding material to cover the X-ray source and detector, minimizing scattered and leaked radiation to the greatest extent."

"It's minimized to the greatest extent, not completely shielded. Zhang Song must have said that using a CT scanner requires a retractable protective cover or radiation protection blanket, and the operator also needs to wear a protective apron and goggles." Zhang San stuffed the used disinfecting wipe back into the bag and pointed at the four-legged, fur-covered evolved wolf beside them.

"This wolf frequently uses the CT scanner and is exposed to X-rays long-term. Can it wear an apron, or goggles?"

Broken-Waist Wolf looked thoughtful, and Xia Qing immediately nodded. "Third Brother, I'll build a professional laboratory."

Broken-Waist Wolf is the rich one—let it put up the yi stones.

Zhang San was satisfied. "Your laboratory here must be equipped with a scanning room fitted with a lead door, lead glass, and lead walls; an observation room for the display screen and your other equipment here; this microscope and the yi-element detector need a lab room; and a decontamination and changing room that the laboratory must have."

Xia Qing calculated carefully and asked, "Third Brother, look—can the room with the CT scanner's display screen be designed a bit smaller? And I'd like to trade with you for a set of soil testing and analysis equipment like the kind Sister Tao uses, and a light incubator, to put in the same room as my yi-element detector. Would that work?"

Zhang San's expression improved a little. "The light incubator needs to be placed in an artificial climate cultivation room where environmental conditions can be controlled."

In other words, she needed to build five laboratory rooms?

Xia Qing negotiated with her idol. "How about you have Ya Ge calculate it and send me a quote?"

If the cost was too high, and Broken-Waist Wolf refused to put up more yi stones, she'd build one lead-walled room and use brick for the rest as much as possible.

As Xia Qing drove him on the micro-tiller toward the northern buffer forest of Territory Three, Zhang San asked, "What do you think—how great is the harm posed by someone like Peng Yuancai?"

This was beyond doubt. "Great!"

Zhang San gripped the back of Xia Qing's chair to keep himself from falling off, his eyes gazing into the vast night and the endless expanse of qiang grass.

"Research and exploration in biology, medicine, and pharmacology are endless, fascinating, even maddening. Many human researchers who grew up in human society and received decades of education can't resist the temptation to conduct experiments that violate the law and medical ethics."

"An evolved wolf that has mastered advanced biological, medical, and pharmacological principles and techniques, knows nothing of law, ethics, or morality, and eats raw meat and drinks fresh blood—if not properly guided and restrained, what kind of disaster will it cause?"