Chapter 1950: Gene Editing

Seeing Xia Qing walking over with a folder, Zhang Song, who was standing at the office door, asked with a smile, "Sister Qing, those people touring and inspecting at Center Nine didn't give you any trouble, did they?"

"No." When the inspection team entered Center Nine, Xia Qing went over to lead the welcome, and after that she never showed herself in front of them again. When she went to inspect that morning, the staff at Center Nine, knowing she was very busy, considerately kept her separated from the inspection team, not letting those people disturb her work.

Xia Qing asked, "Song Ge, things are going smoothly on your end, right?"

What Xia Qing was referring to, of course, was the H5 locked up in Zhang Song's laboratory. This evolved golden snub-nosed monkey had stirred up quite a buzz online — Zhang Song of the Number Seven Territory Research Institute, online, versus the members of the Golden Snub-Nosed Monkey Research Institute at War Three Hui Base Seven, a sweeping victory, illustrious achievements.

"Smooth." Zhang Song noticed Xia Qing was in a good mood, and asked with eyes full of anticipation, "The crops in Sister Qing's territory are growing well, right?"

If the fields are planted properly, shouldn't we go take a look around the wolf, tiger, and bear territories?

Xia Qing nodded, "They're all planted, but the seedlings haven't poked through yet." They'll have to wait a bit longer.

"Alright, Sister Qing, go get busy." Zhang Song watched Xia Qing enter Zhang San's office, then turned around contentedly and pushed open the door to his own office.

Xia Qing entered her idol's office, sat obediently on the little stool that belonged to her, and listened to her senior sister reporting research progress to their mentor.

Zhang He handed the dried dragon fruit her mentor had given her to Xia Qing, signaling Xia Qing to eat some first; she still needed a while.

Xia Qing nodded her thanks, listened to her mentor and senior sister discuss indicators and bacterial strains she couldn't understand at all, tore open the dried dragon fruit's outer packaging at the lowest possible volume, ate silently, doing her best to minimize her presence.

Five minutes later, Zhang He put away her materials, still sitting on her own little stool, grabbed a piece of dried dragon fruit from Xia Qing's hand, and started eating with a perfectly serious expression, showing no sign of leaving.

Zhang San shot her a look, then turned to Xia Qing.

Xia Qing immediately took a sampling case from her backpack and set it on the table, "San Ge, these are the samples I collected from the mangrove protection belt and the evolved forest of Eastern Mountain Fifteen — 53 species in total. The 7 species you asked me to collect, I got them all."

The rest were all samples Xia Qing had collected on the side because she thought they were valuable or that her idol would be interested.

Seeing this neatly kept sampling case, Zhang San glanced at Zhang He, who was pretending to be very hungry, and lazily instructed, "Put it in the inner room first."

"Got it!" Having passed the checkpoint smoothly, Xia Qing picked up the sample case, walked over and beep-beep-beep opened her idol's laboratory door, and nimbly sorted the samples into their proper categories.

Seeing that her junior sister had access clearance to their mentor's personal laboratory, Zhang He wasn't surprised at all, and continued solemnly stuffing dried dragon fruit into her own mouth.

Zhang San poured her a glass of filtered spring water and looked down to check the messages on her phone.

Zhang He immediately felt at ease, picked up the water glass and took a sip.

After Xia Qing came out, Zhang San took out a snack box and placed it in front of her and Zhang He, then brought up the progress of the Eastern Evolved Forest mission, "Xie Yu's squad has successfully recovered the wild dog corpse and sent it to the Safe Zone Research Institute."

Xia Qing replied, "Fourth hasn't replied — she should be tracking that raven."

Zhang San turned the laptop in front of her so Xia Qing could watch the mission video recorded by Xie Yu's squad members. Zhang He immediately scooted over to Xia Qing's side and watched along with her.

The video recorded by the executing squad members' protective masks clearly showed the condition of the wild dog corpse. Xia Qing paused and zoomed in on the wild dog's hind paw, "San Ge, the curvature of this wild dog's hind paw nails is normal!"

Zhang He, who didn't know the prior context, glanced at this wild dog's hind paw nails, then immediately stared at its front paw nails, and sure enough spotted an abnormality.

This is……

Zhang San shot a look at this brain-lazy newcomer, "This is a wild dog that runs fast and hunts in the evolved forest, not an aardvark that digs holes to eat ants."

Xia Qing chuckled twice, watched the recordings from the squad members' protective masks, the drone, and the trained bird, then looked up, "None of them captured the raven Fourth spotted."

Zhang He looked at Xia Qing. Hmm? How is there also business with the former wolf king of the southern wolf pack and a raven — which raven?

This senior sister of hers must have heard she was coming to report to San Ge, and came over to watch the excitement. San Ge keeping her here meant she could know about this matter, so Xia Qing briefly explained the prior context to her.

Only then did Zhang He understand what had happened, and quickly launched into analysis, "In July of the sixth year of the Catastrophe, the Canine Evolution Management Bureau issued a warning, warning some base research institutes and private research institutions that they had violated regulations by treating evolved dogs as experimental subjects and conducting illicit experiments. One item mentioned was injecting evolved dogs with illicit drugs to artificially induce targeted mutations in their skeletal and keratinous tissues."

Zhang He saw Xia Qing's expression at a glance and knew she hadn't followed the related reports, so she briefly explained, "The Canine Evolution Management Bureau is one of the subordinate agencies under Huaguo's Department of Evolutionary Capability Research. The purpose of establishing this department was to research and manage evolved dogs, including wild dogs, and to enhance humanity's control over canines. Our Hui Three Research Institute also has an Evolved Dog Research Group — the group leader, Gou Xunsheng, has solid professional ability, which is why Teacher had Xie Yu's squad send the wild dog corpse to the Safe Zone."

Xia Qing nodded. She knew there was a specialist surnamed Gou at Hui Three Research Institute, but she hadn't known he actually studied dogs……

Seeing her teacher say nothing, Zhang He continued her analysis, "If the raven Fourth spotted really is a trained beast, then the abnormality in this wild dog's front paw opens up the possibility of artificially induced targeted mutation. The methods currently capable of changing nail shape mainly fall into three categories."

"The first is injecting a bone morphogenetic protein antagonist into the front paw pad, suppressing the signaling pathway required for the nail's normal curved growth, making the nail grow straight forward. According to public data from July of the tenth year of the Catastrophe, the success rate of this drug is roughly between 37% and 42%. Failure outcomes include nail brittleness and fracture, paw bone deformity, and in severe cases, the entire front paw loses its supporting ability."

Xia Qing felt a chill run down her back as she listened.

Zhang He raised a second finger, "The second is localized sustained low-dose radiation induction, combined with keratinocyte proliferation factors, causing targeted mutations in the nails during division and growth. This method has a success rate of only 18% to 25%. If the radiation dose isn't well controlled, it induces osteosarcoma. The Management Bureau's archives record three confirmed cases — two evolved dogs died six months after the experiment, both from cancer metastasis."

Zhang He raised a third finger, her expression grave, "The third is gene editing."

Hearing the third possibility, Xia Qing's expression also turned serious.