Chapter 1293: This Is Very Serious!

The old wolf looked calmly at Xia Qing, making no move, but Xia Qing understood perfectly. "Alright, so those two wolves didn't join Fourth's pack. Then what knowledge did they go into your cave to study last night—math? Writing? Evolutionary biology?"

Fourth nodded.

"Alright, so the five wolves studying in Fourth's cave last night were learning about the Evolution Forest's creatures. Fourth, why did you have them study biology?"

……

After more than half an hour of communication between the human and the wolf, Xia Qing finally figured out what the old wolf was thinking.

Half a month ago, Xia Qing had called the old wolf to say that the anaerobic bacteria in the Evolution Forest's soil had evolved, and many prey animals would fall ill. Wolves eating sick prey would also fall ill—diarrhea, growing weak, even death. She told the old wolf to be careful, so the old wolf had called over all the clever wolves in its own territory and the neighboring ones, to teach them which kinds of prey they couldn't eat.

If the southern wolf pack hadn't been raided by Blaze, Fourth would have done this a few days earlier.

As for why Xia Qing couldn't hear the audio of the video while the wolf pack was studying last night, it was because those wolves didn't understand the meaning of human howling, so Fourth played the video on mute while explaining it to them.

Fourth, who had only been learning biology for a few days, had already started taking on disciples… Seeing its confident expression, Xia Qing deeply felt the emotions an idol faces when looking at herself.

If you study evolutionary biology poorly and fumble around under the guidance of wrong knowledge, wolves will die!

Xia Qing immediately changed her plans. She called and hired two members of Beard Feng's squad to come over and do the farm work she had originally planned to do herself. She wanted to free up half a day to explain the situation of the soil anaerobic bacteria's evolution clearly to Fourth, and to make a video for it to take back and properly teach the other wolves, so as not to lead the pack astray.

Since she was going to teach, she might as well teach them all at once, to avoid having to redo the work.

Xia Qing called the Broken-Waist Wolf over, then picked up Does Daigua the little monkey, and began the lesson. She first taught the two wolves and one monkey how to collect soil samples, then led them into the laboratory to test the soil. She hadn't expected that the moment Xia Qing entered the password to open the door and was about to press the ventilation system switch for the testing room, the Broken-Waist Wolf stopped her.

The Broken-Waist Wolf looked at the little monkey hanging on Xia Qing's body, which looked very much like her, with a solemn expression.

Xia Qing silently stared at the Broken-Waist Wolf for a few seconds, then understood the problem. "Daigua, get down. You and Fourth both need to disinfect your paws before you can go in."

Entering the laboratory required disinfection, otherwise it wouldn't meet standard requirements. Because Daigua, a light little monkey, was hanging on her body, Xia Qing had forgotten about this.

Microbial testing must be rigorous and scientific. If strict aseptic operation cannot be guaranteed, the conclusions of soil microbiology experiments will lose their scientific value, and the reagents will be wasted for nothing.

Xia Qing really wanted to say that today she was only using the microscope, not the microbial testing equipment, so she didn't need to be this rigorous. But the Broken-Waist Wolf's strict demands were correct—Sange would certainly think so too. Xia Qing should learn from it.

After letting the Broken-Waist Wolf demonstrate how to use the automatic rolling fur brush and the magnetic-absorption cleaning boots, Fourth performed the exact same operation without a single error and entered the laboratory. Then came the little monkey, pushed in by Xia Qing, reluctant and a little scared.

Finally, Xia Qing changed shoes in the wash-disinfection changing room at the entrance, put on a lab coat, washed her hands and put on gloves, before pressing the ventilation system and turning to look at the Broken-Waist Wolf.

The solemn-faced Broken-Waist Wolf bared its fangs in a grin, showing off its little sharp tips, and took the lead toward the aseptic operation area of the testing room.

Xia Qing……

Why on earth did she see on the Broken-Waist Wolf the overwhelming, pressure-filled figure of her idol……

After entering the testing room, Xia Qing placed the samples on the table, clasped her hands behind her back, and instructed, "Broken-Waist, you use the microscope to test the microorganisms in the soil. Let me see if you've learned it."

The exam-loving Broken-Waist Wolf immediately stood up, inserted its two front paws one after the other into the instrument by the door, put on the antibacterial rubber gloves, then planted its two hind paws on the ground, and with a single leap landed precisely in front of the operating table beside the microscope.

Its movements left even Xia Qing stunned.

Damn it, who taught it to walk like that? Clearly putting on one glove would do the job—why did it put on two?!

The old wolf was also astonished by the Broken-Waist Wolf's posture, watching it with a solemn expression. Daigua, meanwhile, skillfully climbed onto Xia Qing's body and hugged her neck—the place was full of pungent smells, and the little monkey was scared.

The Broken-Waist Wolf wiped the slide and coverslip with alcohol and let them dry, ensuring they were clean, sterile, and free of oil stains, then skillfully picked soil from the sampling tube with a tool, placed it on the slide, pressed the bottle to drip a few drops of sterile water, and covered it with the coverslip. Only then did Xia Qing notice that her lab operating table had several new pieces of small equipment, clearly prepared specifically for the Broken-Waist Wolf.

No need to ask—Sange must have put them there.

This set of rigorous, standardized movements by the Broken-Waist Wolf was also taught by Sange……

When the clear image of the microorganisms appeared on the microscopic imaging display connected to the microscope, Xia Qing first praised the Broken-Waist Wolf, then pointed at the microorganisms on the display and began her introduction. "Fourth, Broken-Waist, Daigua, look—this is the most active bacterial species in the soil after the anaerobic bacteria's evolution on October 23rd—Fusobacterium. It's a pathogenic bacterium, the microorganism that causes diarrhea in wolves, monkeys, tigers, wild boars, rabbits, and other animals…"

The two wolves listening were solemn; the one monkey was dazed.

Xia Qing quickly clicked on her laptop screen, pulled up pictures of soil-layer bacterial species, pointed at the picture, and continued, "…The evolved Fusobacterium is no longer an anaerobic bacterium. It can move in the aerobic soil layer—that is, the area close to the surface. It becomes food for the tiny animals living in this soil layer. Look, this transparent worm is a nematode, and it's using its mouthparts to ingest the Fusobacterium."

Seeing an animal hunting, the monkey was no longer dazed, and the two wolves grew even more solemn.

"This is very serious!"

After watching the nematode ingest the evolved Fusobacterium, Xia Qing turned her head and noticed the difference in expression among her three students. She pointed at the nematode and asked in a gentle voice, "Daigua thinks this kind of worm looks delicious?"

The two wolves were solemn; the one monkey bared its teeth.

Most humans, under the reinforcement of social psychology, would develop resistance emotions like fear or disgust when seeing nematodes magnified. The white-faced saki monkey didn't know what this was, so in the little monkey's eyes, the nematode just looked like very tasty food.

Xia Qing tapped its head with her finger and solemnly warned, "Even though this worm looks tasty, you can't eat it, because it has eaten pathogenic bacteria. If you eat it, you'll get diarrhea and fall ill. Besides, it's very small…"

Using Daigua's little black paw, Fourth's fur, and other physical objects, Xia Qing taught the old wolf and Daigua, who were new to the microscope, what "magnified" meant, before continuing the lesson. "Nematodes that eat the evolved Fusobacterium—those with strong resistance won't get sick, those with weak resistance will. Our research found that one in ten nematodes gets sick. So, here's the question—which animals eat nematodes?"

The Broken-Waist Wolf's eyes immediately lit up. Xia Qing called on it, "Broken-Waist, you answer this question."

The Broken-Waist Wolf immediately jumped in front of Xia Qing's laptop, tapped on the screen with its paw, found the food chain knowledge map, then scrolled down, found the nematodes at the bottom of the food chain, and clicked. Then, pictures and names of various animals that feed on nematodes appeared on the screen.

"Exactly right! Broken-Waist, you truly are an evolved wolf standing at the top of the Blue Star brain-domain evolution pyramid—you got it right!" Xia Qing praised the Broken-Waist Wolf enthusiastically. If they weren't in the laboratory, she would definitely reward this clever wolf with a piece of green-light freeze-dried treat!