Chapter 1145: A Qualified Researcher

After the Broken-Waist Wolf left, Xia Qing brought out a pot of green-light hazelnut mushroom, wide vermicelli, potato and goose stew, a plate of sugar-dressed tomatoes, a plate of cold spinach salad, a cup of loofah soup, and two bowls of steaming green-light rice, warmly inviting her idol to taste this meal that had color, aroma, flavor, and energy all in one.

Zhang San looked at the pleasing white porcelain tableware and stainless steel chopsticks, and finally felt a hint of appetite. He sat down, took a sip of soup first, then tasted a bite of every dish, and gave a precise evaluation: "This tomato salad is passable."

Out of the three dishes, having one that the picky idol considered passable was already enough for Xia Qing to feel content. "This was made with the white sugar I traded with you, Third Brother. You're too thin, eat more meat. All the seasonings and ingredients in here are green-light."

Not only were the seasonings and ingredients green-light, the water added to the pot and used to wash the vegetables was boiled from unpolluted spring water... Acting on the principle of not wasting quality ingredients, Zhang San began to pick up his chopsticks.

Having gone hunting in the morning and casually eaten just two eggs and a few pieces of grilled meat for lunch, Xia Qing—who had finally passed the assessment and acceptance check—had a hearty appetite and buried herself in her rice.

How did she know she passed?

Did the idol say she failed? No! Not failing means passing, right!

No need to confirm with the idol? Of course not—the result of confirming would definitely be failure!

Xia Qing, eating meat in big bites, radiated an aura of joy all over. Infected by her enjoyment of the food, Zhang San unconsciously finished a whole bowl of rice.

Having eaten four bowls of rice, Xia Qing saw that the idol's expression when he put down his chopsticks was still fairly kind, which made her feel even more at ease, and she took the chance to chat casually with him.

"Third Brother, the rumor outside is that you left Huiyi Research Institute because the food there was bad. Is the food there really that bad?"

Zhang San nodded. "One-fifth of the food supplied by Huiyi Research Institute's cafeteria is green-light, three-fifths is yellow-light, and the last fifth is ration-type."

After processing, the qiang-element content of ration-type food also falls within the yellow-light category.

The idol is allergic to qiang elements and can't eat yellow-light food—how did he endure those years at Huiyi Research Institute?

What kind of person is the idol? He's a top-tier medical and pharmaceutical expert who is allergic to qiang elements and has made outstanding contributions to the nation's disaster relief efforts!

No wonder the idol has gotten this thin, no wonder when the lords got their walkie-talkies and first traded food and seedlings on the channel, the idol was even willing to trade for yellow-light lamb from Territory Two.

"It's not as miserable as you think. All my food is green-light, just very limited in variety." Zhang San said lazily, "I can also cultivate green-light plants in the lab and squeeze vegetable juice to supplement nutrition."

Xia Qing ladled out another bowl of soup for the idol and handed it over. "When I lived in the Safe Zone, I couldn't find a hidden and safe place to grow quality vegetables to supplement my nutrition. I could only plant some vegetable seeds I found in the Evolution Forest in flower pots on my dorm windowsill. Every time before a qiang rain, I'd pull up the seedlings and eat them roots and all, then plant new ones after the qiang rain."

Not just Xia Qing—many people in the Safe Zone grew vegetables this way. That's why Xia Qing was so excited when she left the Safe Zone and entered her own territory of several thousand mu.

Even now, nearly two years after coming out to farm, standing in her territory looking at the farmland that belongs to her, Xia Qing still feels a deep sense of satisfaction well up inside.

Every human who has survived from before the Catastrophe to now has their own unique survival wisdom, and is a strong one within their own class and small environment.

Xia Qing is a strong one, worthy of the name.

After finishing his second bowl of bland, tasteless soup, Zhang San put his bowl directly back in the kitchen and asked Xia Qing, who was clearing the dishes, "Why did you set a password on the lab?"

This...

Zhang San said coldly, "Tell the truth."

"It was that after the Broken-Waist Wolf learned how to use the door, it decided that a password plus facial recognition was a safer way to open it."

"Did it actively want to learn how to use the door, or did you actively teach it?"

Xia Qing answered the idol's question in a way that was both truthful and evasive of the key point: "I taught it proactively. I figured once it learned, it could use the door more safely."

Zhang San nodded. "How long did it take Broken-Waist to remember the password and learn to unlock the door?"

Xia Qing explained, "Third Brother, it didn't remember the password—it remembered which position to press first and which to press next. I taught it twice and it learned."

Zhang San thought for a few seconds, then began arranging the Broken-Waist Wolf's follow-up study plan: "Delete all the messy videos on its notebook and phone, and replace them with teaching videos for three subjects—elementary school Chinese, math, and Evolutionary Biology. First, make it solidify the basics. It really likes tests, so after it finishes each video, you must check its learning results to make sure it has truly learned before letting it move on to the next one."

Thinking of the video playlist the Broken-Waist Wolf had watched—a list that could be called a great encyclopedia of human knowledge—Zhang San started getting a headache again.

When Yang Jin and I shared this knowledge with you, we never imagined you'd share it with a wolf that can't even recognize a single character!

This sounds like a lot of work...

Xia Qing sincerely asked for guidance: "Third Brother, Broken-Waist is an excellent adult evolved wolf living in the Evolution Forest. Does it really need to systematically study human knowledge?"

Zhang San didn't answer this question directly, but brought up a macaque instead.

"In the third year of the Catastrophe, Hui-Liu Base captured a 2-year-old brain-evolution macaque from the Evolution Forest and named it Hui-Liu No. 8 Brain-Evolution Macaque Specimen. This macaque was very well-behaved and obedient, never attacking humans, so the researchers gradually let down their guard against it."

"During the second qiang rain of the fifth year of the Catastrophe, Hui-Liu Safe Zone was struck by a thunderstorm that triggered a large-scale qiang explosion, and the research institute's buildings were severely damaged. In the panic, the researchers rushed to disaster relief without remembering to lock up Hui-Liu No. 8. This macaque seized the chance, used a stool to block the lab door, entered the password, and freed the No. 3-12 brain-evolution macaques and 32 other macaques of different evolution categories that were locked in that lab, then took advantage of the chaos to escape Hui-Liu Safe Zone."

"This group of macaques, who had survived one cruel experiment after another, carried their hatred of humans back into the Evolution Forest, starting a six-year war between the humans of Hui-Liu Base and the macaques." Zhang San suddenly stopped and reminded Xia Qing, "There's still food residue on the rim of this plate."

Xia Qing put the plate she was about to set down back into the warm water and continued washing. "Third Brother, is Hui-Liu No. 8 still alive?"

"Although Hui-Liu hasn't found any trace of it these past two years, Zhang Song believes it's still alive." After introducing this macaque, Zhang San finally returned to the main topic.

"The macaques that escaped from Hui-Liu Research Institute saw and learned the cruelest side of humanity. They applied the methods humans used to intimidate and tame macaques to other animals, quickly driving out the fierce beasts in Hui-Liu's Evolution Forest, occupying large swaths of territory, and also disrupting the ecological balance of Hui-Liu's Evolution Forest. Hui-Liu sent ground-air joint forces several times to clear the Evolution Forest, but failed to completely wipe out the macaque troop, triggering wave after wave of vicious retaliation from them."

"Because of Hui-Liu No. 8, humans have maintained an extremely cautious attitude toward 'teaching knowledge' to Gao Zhishang animals. You are the only human within my knowledge who has, without reservation, shared what you know with a brain-evolution animal."

"And it's precisely because of your lack of reservation that Broken-Waist's knowledge system is extremely chaotic, with serious errors in its understanding of knowledge. When it starts applying that wrong knowledge in practice, it will likewise lead to catastrophic consequences. If not properly guided, it could become an even more destructive brain-evolution creature in the Evolution Forest than Hui-Liu No. 8."

"Since you consider Broken-Waist your companion, you definitely won't agree to killing it now to eliminate the hidden danger. So, the pit you've dug yourself has to be filled in by yourself."

Holding the plate, Xia Qing suddenly thought of the Does Daigua monkey squatting on the tree branch watching videos with the Broken-Waist Wolf—does it count as a... pit?

"Once Broken-Waist finishes learning the basics, I will guide it to become a qualified Evolution Forest ecological researcher and maintainer."

Zhang San picked up the protective mask hanging on the rack and looked at this unreliable, bizarre human in front of him.

Her 'Medical Ethics' studies were a muddled mess, not because she was unintelligent, but because she wasn't interested, or rather she considered it useless.

And she is the only human who can figure out that wolf's thought process, so only she is up to this task.

She completed nine years of compulsory education—teaching an evolved wolf elementary school basics shouldn't go wrong... right?