Chapter 1581: Charge Forward!

"Professor Guo, Teacher Hu..." Han Yanqian, shivering in the nearly minus-thirty-degree cold wind near Red One Base, spoke with a voice trembling uncontrollably.

Guo Qingbin gave a slight nod and kept walking, surrounded by the crowd. Han Yanqian's graduate advisor, Hu Guangdong, stopped and asked gently, "Why haven't you gone back to rest yet?"

Half-frozen to death, Han Yanqian couldn't hear clearly what her advisor was saying. She staggered two steps up to him. "Teacher, I found six highly cold-resistant beetles. The Yi element content is close to..."

Han Yanqian raised her trembling hand and spread her fingers. The Yi element content was close to five ten-thousandths. Both its research value and application value were high—this was the confidence that had kept Han Yanqian waiting in the cold wind for an hour. She didn't believe her advisor wouldn't be tempted.

"Come with me!" Sure enough tempted, Hu Guangdong turned and led his student back to the laboratory building.

Outside was a world of ice and snow; inside the building it was warm as spring. A layer of water droplets immediately condensed on Han Yanqian's protective face shield, blocking her view. She steadied herself and, under the gaze of an armed guard, passed through the security gate and staggered after her advisor, who was already going through the disinfection channel.

Only after Hu Guangdong brought her back to the laboratory did he ask gently, "Where did you find them? What species of beetle? What type of evolution?"

Han Yanqian's body gradually warmed up and her voice stopped trembling. She gave the excuse she had long prepared: "A team of evolvers on an outside mission discovered them by accident. It happens that the captain of that team lives right next door to me, and he knows I study insects, so he contacted me."

The truth was: to regain her advisor's favor and secure a position as an assistant researcher in his lab after graduation, Han Yanqian had emptied her wallet to hire that disgusting evolver team next door to find insect samples for her.

Han Yanqian's violation of the P3 laboratory management regulations of Hui Three-Seven Territory, and her being driven out by Professor Fu Tianfeng, not only caused her father to lose his real-power position as deputy base commander and her mother to lose her job at the television station, but also landed Han Yanqian herself on the blacklist of every research institute and university in Hua Nation.

No university or laboratory would accept someone driven out by Professor Fu Tianfeng, because they didn't want to be blacklisted by him and lose the chance to collaborate with this top big shot.

Through this incident, Han Yanqian finally understood just how much influence Professor Fu Tianfeng—the man her advisor constantly mocked and sneered about—actually had.

The parents who had once loved her and held her in the palm of their hands were forced to move out of their villa in the inner city of Red Eleven Base and into a cramped, crowded, smelly residential building in the outer city of Red One Base, where they now argued over every little thing. Every time Han Yanqian went home from school now, she was met with her parents' cold faces.

The group of lapdogs who used to gather around her, gazing at her with envy, now either ignored her or took the chance to push her out. The suitors who had once treated her as a goddess now put on disdainful expressions in front of her, and a few disgusting ones even openly offered her a price to...

Blow after blow made Han Yanqian realize that staying on at the school to teach or work as a lab assistant had become her only way out and safe harbor, so she had to cling tightly to her advisor—one of the culprits who had caused her to be driven out of Seven Territory.

It was Hu Guangdong who had sent her to investigate Hui Three-Three Territory and Seven Territory, and it was he who had told her to ask Zhang San for the white-faced monkey blood sample. When Han Yanqian reported that Three Territory might have an unpolluted water source, Hu Guangdong hadn't stopped her from investigating either!

Having gotten no valuable information, Hu Guangdong's expression was kind, but a hint of urgency crept into his voice. "You've always had good luck. Did you take photos or video?"

Before her internship at Seven Territory, her luck had indeed been very good, but after that...

Han Yanqian lowered her head to hide the hatred on her face, took out her phone, and found the photo she had taken of the pale-colored beetle. "I took photos. Look."

"This is a Snow-hiding Ground Beetle with fairly strong cold resistance. What about the Shang element content?" Seeing this photo of the beetle with a scale ruler, Hu Guangdong was somewhat disappointed, and his tone cooled, because an evolved Snow-hiding Ground Beetle with a Yi element content of just over four ten-thousandths wasn't exactly rare.

Han Yanqian's nerves tightened again at her advisor's tone, and she immediately answered, "3.5‰. It's a premium green-light insect."

This Shang element content was a bit lower than what was in the school lab. Hu Guangdong's expression improved, and he instructed, "Bring it to the lab tomorrow for a detailed test to confirm its research value."

"Okay." Han Yanqian breathed a sigh of relief and got to the point. "Are you discussing the expedition to Hui Three Northern District One Territory with Professor Guo?"

At the mention of that place that had completely overturned her smooth-sailing life, Han Yanqian's anger surged uncontrollably.

Hu Guangdong frowned. "Where did you get that information?"

"When I was helping you clean out the shredder, I found fragments of an application document that hadn't been completely shredded. I pieced the information on them together."

Han Yanqian's eyes welled up with tears, and she pleaded in a trembling voice, "Can I go with you? I know I was wrong. I want to apologize to Professor Fu in person and beg his forgiveness. I shouldn't have believed the rumors so easily, and I shouldn't have damaged the spinach inside Three Territory..."

After a meeting of more than three hours, having finally secured a spot on the Hui Three-Seven Territory expedition team, Hu Guangdong raised a hand to press his temple and cut off this student who had caused him endless trouble. "A serious mistake can't be forgiven with just an apology. You must settle down and focus on studying and researching now. When you have achievements you can show for yourself and have made real contributions to fighting the natural disasters, Professor Fu will naturally forgive you."

Han Yanqian clenched her frozen fists and answered in a trembling voice, "I want to contribute too, but if he doesn't forgive me, no lab will take me, and I won't have any chance to contribute at all."

Hu Guangdong took a deep breath. "Have you finished the first draft of your graduation thesis? According to the thesis schedule, you must submit your first draft before January 15th. Today is already the 9th. How much have you completed?"

Han Yanqian had long known she wouldn't get the chance to go to Hui Three. She answered sincerely, "I've already finished ninety percent. I'll bring you the thesis and the beetles together tomorrow, alright?"

Hu Guangdong's expression improved. "Go on, then. If you have any questions, ask your senior fellow student."

After leaving the laboratory building, Han Yanqian walked resolutely into the wind and snow, as if she had made some kind of decision.

At 5:15 a. m., the north gate of Hui Three Northern District One Territory opened. One person and one wolf passed through the north gate, leaving the territory and almost reaching the special training ground, when Xia Qing saw from afar that training instructor Yan Long was already standing in the center, and the lead wolves of the north and south wolf packs—Old Four and Broken-Waist Wolf—had already arrived with their trainee cubs.

The last one to arrive has to spar with the instructor! Xia Qing immediately shook off Handsome Giant Wolf and sprinted forward at full speed.