Chapter 1347: Zhang Song's Skill at Cursing People

Since she was going to put on an act, she had to make it convincing. After sighing, Xia Qing fetched some water and carried the bucket up to the roof.

To provide cover for digging the underground room, Xia Qing put on a lot of surface work: stone and timber inside and outside the courtyard, half-finished furniture, and a roof under repair.

Before Zhang Song and Zhang Han entered Territory Three, Xia Qing had lifted two resin tiles on the roof and patched a surface crack; now it was time to patch the second one.

Once on the roof, Xia Qing saw a black shadow rapidly duck down inside the bee-keeping greenhouse's insect-proof netting. Though it lasted only a second, Xia Qing, looking down from above, relied on her sharp eyesight and caught Zhang Han's right index finger pressing near the right ear of her protective mask.

When she had faced Zhang Han earlier, Xia Qing had already noticed two touch-sliders in that spot on Zhang Han's mask. Zhang Han's movement just now was probably adjusting some high-tech equipment built into her protective mask—presumably something like a magnifier. This also proved Zhang Han was not a visual Evolver.

Therefore, Zhang Han, while inside the bee-keeping greenhouse, could only monitor Xia Qing's movements with the aid of equipment.

Xia Qing stared openly at the bee-keeping greenhouse until Zhang Han looked up again and ducked back down; only then did she begin briskly patching the crack. These shallow roof cracks wouldn't leak, but if not repaired promptly they'd breed microbes—a threat even greater than leaks.

With the second crack patched, Xia Qing flipped over the nearby asbestos tile and kept searching for and repairing cracks.

Before she had even used up her bucket of cement mortar, Zhang Song and Zhang Han arrived at the abandoned village where she lived, blood samples from two monk-faced macaques in hand, and appeared beside the lab.

Perhaps realizing that playing pitiful wouldn't rouse Zhang Song's or Xia Qing's sympathy, Zhang Han switched back to her model-student act and silently trailed behind Zhang Song.

Seeing Xia Qing busy on the roof, Zhang Song raised the two blood-collection tubes in his hand and called out, "Qing-jie, you're busy—shall we go in on our own?"

"No need, I'll be done in three minutes." Xia Qing sped up.

Every previous time Zhang Han had come to Territory Three, Xia Qing had watched her like a hawk and kept her away from the abandoned village where she lived. Of course she couldn't let the two of them go in alone this time—otherwise the whole act would fall apart.

Zhang Han, head lowered, carefully examined the ground around the lab and in front of the door. Judging by the dust settled on it, she confirmed there were no signs of recent sweeping—Xia Qing hadn't entered the lab today.

Maybe Xia Qing had long since hidden everything in the lab that needed hiding, which was why she wasn't afraid to let her in. But no matter how careful, there's always one slip; Zhang Han was confident that going inside would let her find something to take back and report.

This dump—she didn't want to spend another day here.

She'd been here half a month and only saw Professor Fu Tianfeng on the first day; after that, Zhang Song had used her as free labor.

Zhang Song either sent her to the greenhouses in various territories to observe and record the social behavior of bees and aphid flies, or had her in the lab running detection, analysis, or sample processing on more than a dozen items—pathogens, antioxidant enzymes, and so on.

Just when she finally finished all that, before she could go find Professor Fu Tianfeng to say a word, Zhang Song shoved stacks of papers at her, telling her to read and study them carefully, and to report her paper-reading progress and learning gains at the group meeting.

Doing an internship here is more exhausting than staying at school!

When Xia Qing changed into a protective suit and came over to enter the door code, Zhang Han, with perfect justification, turned her head and let her gaze sweep quickly across the large stretch of crop stalks drying on the east side of the lab, the unfinished buildings farther away, and the jumble of building materials.

Zhang Han confirmed once more that Hui San, this dual-system senior Evolver sniper, really did spend every day in her territory working endlessly, just like an ordinary lord.

Even if she liked farming, there should be a limit. Zhang Han didn't believe Xia Qing didn't feel tired and bored—most likely she thought this kind of work was easier than other point-earning tasks she could be doing.

Another possibility: Xia Qing, living in the outer city, had never truly experienced life in the inner city, so she didn't know she had better options.

After Xia Qing opened the door, Zhang Han, thrilled inside but expressionless, followed Zhang Song into this mysterious lab of Territory Three—only to be greatly disappointed.

From the outside, Territory Three's lab looked the part, but inside there were only a few basic instruments needed for farming and breeding.

For just these few instruments, which the soil labs in Territories Seven, One, and Twelve all had, was it worth building a lab that cost over a million?

Wasn't Xia Qing supposed to be very poor and frugal? What was her purpose in spending a fortune to build this lab? Could there be an underground room?

In principle, impossible.

Territory Three had few people and weak defenses. If she wanted to keep things hidden, she should have built the lab directly underground and kept the surface as ruins or wasteland—no need for an above-ground portion.

So even if Territory Three really did have an underground lab, it wouldn't be beneath this one.

Zhang Han's gaze locked onto the closed-door artificial climate cultivation room. If there was a secret here, it had to be in that cultivation room.

If the cultivation room also turned up nothing, then it should be in the two-story small building where Xia Qing lived, or somewhere hidden in this abandoned village.

With Xia Qing watching, she had no chance today to probe the other areas of the abandoned village. So no matter what, today she was going to sweep that plant cultivation room and Xia Qing's small building, every inch!

One hour later.

Xia Qing slammed Territory Three's south gate shut with a clang, locked it, and turned to enter the tall-grass wall.

Xia Qing was truly angry—she'd left without even saying a word to him. Zhang Song wanted to strangle Zhang Han for dragging him into this.

At this point, Zhang Song no longer needed to spare Zhang Han any face.

Once in the car, he fixed Zhang Han with searchlight-like eyes, staring straight at her face after she'd removed her protective mask, and suddenly asked, "Who gave you the mission to come here and investigate the lord of Territory Three and her territory? Red Eleven's people, or Red One's?"

The special-ops soldier driving pretended to hear nothing. Zheng Chen in the passenger seat raised his eyes and used the rearview mirror to watch Zhang Han in the back.

Zhang Han's gaze flicked quickly past Zheng Chen's bright, striking eyes in the rearview mirror. She clenched her fists, met Zhang Song's stare, and answered sincerely, "Please don't make things hard for me—I'm just a powerless student."

"Power and status you can do without, but you can't do without conscience or a bottom line." Zhang Song, radiating pressure, pressed on, "Who in Red One sent you here?"

How did he guess so accurately?! Zhang Han's pupils contracted instantly; her body leaned back involuntarily, putting as much distance as possible between herself and Zhang Song.

Zhang Song leaned forward slightly, steadily increasing the pressure. "What did he promise you? A PhD? A job? Transferring your parents to Red One Base?"

Without waiting for Zhang Han to answer, Zhang Song kept firing rapidly, "Your prefrontal cortex utilization rate is so low it makes me suspect you're an atavistic specimen in primate evolutionary history! I suggest you immediately sign up for the control group in the 'Do Mirror Neurons Exist' experiment—after all, your behavior perfectly demonstrates what's meant by a 'social-learning-deficient primate subspecies.'"

Zheng Chen……

The special-ops soldier driving……

When educated people curse, it's so tactful yet direct—amazing!