Chapter 1626: Leading the Team into Mountain Fifty

Xia Qing quickly settled on a form of address and called out respectfully, "Hello, First Senior Aunt."

Her idol was her teacher, and her teacher's senior sister — of course she had to call her First Senior Aunt!

Zhang San raised a hand and pressed his temple. He had forgotten that the new-human disaster standing before him had only just started her first year of high school, and didn't know the forms of address between senior fellow disciples of the academy. His fault.

Zhang Song immediately stepped in to smooth things over. "Junior Sister Xia…"

Before Zhang Song could finish, Bai Jiangxia raised a hand and cut him off. "Drop the 'First.' Just call me Senior Aunt is fine. Your research direction is an excellent choice. With climate change intensifying and extreme weather occurring more and more frequently, breeding stress-tolerant varieties to boost farmland output is the 'ballast stone' technology for safeguarding food-security resilience. Our research institute has a team working in the same direction, but they didn't come this time. I hope we'll have the chance to collaborate with you on research in the future."

Her idol not speaking meant she was expected to respond on her own.

Xia Qing, who had already steadied herself, replied politely, "You're too kind, Senior Aunt. I've only just started laying the foundations with my teacher, and my main task right now is still to learn and complete the projects she assigns. Your team must already be deep into the research. If in the future my teacher thinks my work could be of some reference value to your side, I'll give it my full cooperation."

Hearing Xia Qing's watertight reply, Bai Jiangxia nodded and didn't pursue the topic further, turning her concern to the injuries on her face and neck. "Were your injuries from an accident during an experiment — attacked by an aberrant evolved crop?"

Zhang Song knew at once that Bai Jiangxia, who only paid attention to her own research field, had never heard of anyone called Xia Qing, and assumed Xia Qing was a full-time assistant researcher within Territory Seven.

So Zhang Song gave Bai Jiangxia a grand introduction. "Senior Aunt, Junior Sister Xia Qing is the lord of Territory Three in Northern Zone One of Hui-3. At the same time, she also serves as the manager of the two evolved-forest experimental zones in Territory Seven and the director of Hui-3's Ninth Planting Center. Beyond that, she's one of only two top snipers in the entire Hui-3 Base. Right now, she's using the gaps between the farming off-season and her research to take part in combat training, which is how she picked up these minor external injuries."

So many duties — could they really be piled onto a single student's shoulders? Bai Jiangxia didn't interfere with Zhang San's training plans for her students. She only nodded at Zhang Song, then praised Xia Qing. "Being able to hold several posts at once while still focusing on cutting-edge study and research — that kind of coordination ability and perseverance is truly rare."

Then, the weak, innocent, and pitiful Xia Qing, together with Zhang Song, who was trying hard to squeeze his way under Zhang San's tutelage, were both chased out.

After the automatic door of Zhang San's office closed, Zhang Song turned his head and asked warmly the masked Xia Qing, "Junior Sister, want to come rest in my office for a bit?"

Xia Qing was about to go with Zhang Song to sync up their schedules, and nodded in agreement. "Sure, sorry to trouble you, Song Ge."

Hearing that Xia Qing was willing to go to his office, Zhang Song got so excited that his left foot caught on his right leg and he pitched forward.

Xia Qing deftly steadied him, and resolved that if Bai Mao needed another C-section this year, she would definitely request Zhang He to perform the surgery again — just in case this trip-and-fall klutz stumbled in front of the operating table and stabbed Bai Mao into a serious injury with one slip of the blade.

Sitting in Xia Qing's seat inside the office, Bai Jiangxia watched the two of them walk away on the wall-mounted surveillance screen, reached up and turned the monitor off, and complained, "Isn't Song Mingqing a primatologist? What on earth is this messy relationship you two have."

Zhang San leaned back lazily in his chair. "Let's get down to business."

Bai Jiangxia snorted, tilted her chin toward the fridge behind Zhang San, and said, "Pour me a glass of juice. With sugar."

Zhang San……

Bai Jiangxia narrowed her eyes. "Don't say you don't have any — I saw your whole greenhouse of dragon fruit and sugarcane."

Zhang San swiveled his chair and stood, poured two glasses of freshly squeezed pear juice, and added some cane sugar to one of them. Bai Jiangxia picked up the sweetened juice, took a sip, and sighed, "This office must have cost over a million to build, right? Your days really have gotten better."

In the fifth year of the Calamity, Bai Jiangxia had taken the opportunity of a collaborative exchange to visit Zhang San at Hui-1 Research Institute once.

Back then, Zhang San's office was no different from anyone else's, and there was no fridge for food inside. At noon, Bai Jiangxia went to the cafeteria with him; they drank porridge boiled from compressed rations and ate Yellow-Lamp food. After she got back, she began regularly mailing him Green-Lamp rice and dehydrated Green-Lamp vegetables and meat.

After she'd sent two shipments, the man who wished he could vanish from the face of the earth deliberately called her and told her to stop sending things. Zhang San didn't say why, but Bai Jiangxia understood perfectly — the Hui-1 Research Institute director's jealousy and sidelining of Zhang San were plain for anyone with eyes to see.

Thinking of how, in the spring of the tenth year of the Calamity, he had arrived at Territory Seven empty-handed, and how for those two months his eyes had lit up at the mere mention of Green-Lamp food, Zhang San smiled and sighed, "It was a little bit at a time."

Bai Jiangxia didn't ask about Song Mingqing, and only focused on the top-sniper student Zhang San had just taken on. "Xia Qing is the discoverer of X-2 spinach?"

Zhang San answered precisely, "Discoverer and breeder."

Bai Jiangxia reminded him, "Being willing to put out such a high-stability, high-quality crop for promotion — this child's character is quite good. A versatile talent is extremely rare, so you need to be more careful with her training. A person's energy is limited; if it's spread too thin, it's hard to achieve a major breakthrough in any one field."

The Ninth Center was one Xia Qing wanted to set up, the Mountain Fifty experimental zone was one she had requested to apply for herself, and the Southern Wolf Pack experimental zone was also one she wanted to establish. If they didn't let her run them, who would they let run them? Zhang San would have liked to assign someone else. The Ninth Center would still be manageable, but if they swapped out the people for Mountain Fifty and the Southern Wolf Pack experimental zone, the northern and southern wolf packs would definitely object!

The more Zhang San thought about it, the angrier he got, and he snorted coldly, "Let's get down to business."

At nine o'clock the next morning, Xia Qing, having finished her special training and changed clothes, drank a homemade X-nutrient solution and drove off, arriving at Territory Seven right on schedule.

After entering Territory Seven, Xia Qing contacted Hu Zifeng.

Five minutes later, Hu Zifeng, piloting Xia Qing's helicopter, set it down steadily outside the south gate of Territory Seven. Then Xia Qing and a squad from Hui-3's Special Operations Team Two, escorting Zhang He and twenty-one outside experts, boarded and set off for the Third Peak of Mountain Fifty.

The visiting delegation entering Northern Zone One split into two teams that day. One team, accompanied by Xia Qing and Zhang He, went to Mountain Fifty to tour the hidden valley and observe the treatment of contaminated soil. The second team, accompanied by Zhang Song and Zhang Tao, toured the public experiments and planting projects within Territory Seven and the Ninth Center.

To ensure the safety of these fragile experts, even though the Third Peak of Mountain Fifty was only a few li from the Northern Zone One territory, Xia Qing and Zhang Song decided to transport them by helicopter.

Fuel costs? They'd go on Hui-3 Base's public accounts. This was a fine opportunity to expand Hui-3 Base's influence and reputation, and Hui-3 Base was happy to foot that small fuel bill.

After the helicopter landed on the helipad at the Third Peak of Mountain Fifty, Zhang He took one group to the previous high-risk zone and briefed them on the soil treatment and remediation. Xia Qing and Territory Seven's assistant researcher Zhang Tang were in charge of the second group, leading them to tour the hidden valley.

Red One and Bai Qi's visiting delegation were in the second group.