Chapter 970: Flying the Big Banner

Xia Qing had already avenged her father's death, so there was no need to bring it up again. "It doesn't really count as a grudge. I only met Lord Two once, last spring, when we were lining up at the safe zone to claim territory. I was first in line, and she cut in and stood in front of me later. We never actually clashed."

"You think no clash happened, but clearly the other party doesn't see it that way." Zhang Song, who had an extremely thorough understanding of human nature, rubbed his bruised knee and reminded Xia Qing, "Lord Two just now looked like she wanted to tear you apart with her eyes."

Before Xia Qing could speak, Zhang Song went on: "Are you about to say it was just a minor thing that happened a year and a half ago, nothing worth making a fuss over?"

"The deeper reason people hate you is the aura of stability, contentment, self-reliance, and self-confidence that naturally radiates from you. This kind of aura or feeling is something people who love open and covert struggles, stirring up trouble, sowing discord, and kicking someone when they're down will never manage to obtain in their entire lives."

"It's not that they don't know which path is the right one, but the right path is too arduous. They don't want to walk it, or they give up after walking it for a while."

"When people who've always walked the right path and are doing quite well stand in front of them, it makes them uncomfortable all over. You can also use the word 'magnetic field' to explain this discomfort. In Lord Two's eyes, you saying nothing happened is even more unbearable to her than if you'd said you hate her."

"Song Ge." Xia Qing parked the car in the yard, calm as always. "If you have something to say, just say it."

No need to flatter—fans follow their idol, I don't buy that crap.

"Alright." As a professional, Zhang Song was used to digging deep into the essence before revealing the problem. Since Xia Qing told him to speak plainly, he spoke plainly:

"I analyzed Lord Two's behavior just now and inferred her most likely motive: she wants to get to us—or more precisely, her first target just now was me. From her expression when she saw my face, you can tell she knows who I am. The reason she rushed out was to use me to get a chance to approach Third Brother."

When Xia Qing turned to look at him, showing interest in his analysis, Zhang Song continued, "Most likely, she wants to gild herself with a layer of gold called 'favored by Professor Fu Tianfeng,' so she can get more attention and resources at Bai Yi Medical Academy."

"From her final look, you can tell her motive hasn't faded because of the setback just now. I've already shown a clear attitude of rejection. If my guess is right, next she'll look for a chance to approach and test you."

"Sister Qing, no matter what she promises you, don't give her what she wants, because Third Brother really hates this kind of thing."

No one wanted Xia Qing and Zhang San to maintain a long-term friendly cooperative relationship more than Zhang Song did. Only that way could he get more chances to observe the evolved forest animals up close.

Zhang San had signed an unequal agreement and paid a huge price to break away from Hui One and come to northern Hui Three to set up his own laboratory. He no longer concerned himself with the safe zone's power struggles and factional fights, hiding his identity and focusing on research.

What he didn't like, Xia Qing knew very well. What she couldn't figure out was the Zhang Song in front of her. "Song Ge, don't you specialize in studying monkeys?"

"To be more precise, what I do is research on primates. The research covers the origin, evolution, genetics, and behavior of primates, as well as their relationship with the ecological environment. So, although humans aren't my main focus, they fall within my research scope. I've had some small achievements in micro-expression recognition research."

Zhang Song took off his protective mask and explained his new ability to Xia Qing. "After humans receive information, the facial tissues make small expression changes that are very hard to consciously control, revealing their true inner feelings. These micro-expressions last only 1/25th of a second to 1/5th of a second. Capturing them accurately is very difficult."

"I'm a Level Five visual evolver. I don't need AI technology—I can accurately capture the other person's micro-expressions with my own eyes. It's precisely because I'm skilled at this that when I was at Red Eleven, I was often seconded to take part in interrogation."

Territory Seven really was a place where crouching tigers and hidden dragons lay. Xia Qing nodded. "Hui Three also has experts in this field."

Zhang Shiyi gestured for Xia Qing to carry the medical equipment down, and said, "The expert Sister Qing is talking about is Dr. Wang Xin's husband, Zhang Taining, who was once hospitalized for treatment in Territory Seven, right?"

"That's him."

Xia Qing unloaded the portable CT scanner from the car, and heard Zhang Song, who had carefully climbed down from the off-road vehicle, say, "Third Brother said lugging it back and forth is too much trouble, so this machine stays here with Sister Qing. There's a new one in Territory Seven."

"Alright. Song Ge, wait a moment, I'll go in and tidy up the room." Xia Qing went inside, carried the Broken-Waist Wolf to the second-floor living room, stuffed a piece of green-light jerky into its mouth, told it to stay quiet, then carried the CT scanner into the house, asked Zhang Song to sit down and have some tea and watch TV, while she went to anesthetize the old wolf in the sheep pen.

Zhang Song limped over to the sofa Xia Qing had made herself and looked around at the furnishings in the room.

From the family portrait hanging on the wall, one could tell Xia Qing had a happy childhood, and that her parents both had unyielding, resilient characters.

The living room held a modified bicycle with a very low seat. Such a modification was for animal use. The bicycle's pedals were worn quite smooth, with no scratch marks. A preliminary judgment was that the evolved sheep in Territory Three had mastered the skill of pedaling a bicycle.

It wasn't strange for sheep to be able to do this after training.

Beside the sofa were two hanging chairs, one large and one small, and a tatami. A small wooden nest hung on the wall, and in the corner stood a tree branch, polished smooth and fixed to a sturdy base.

Zhang Song picked up a gray hair from the sofa cushion and examined it carefully, then reached a conclusion: the sheep, wolves, squirrels, and monk-faced monkeys in Territory Three all lived downstairs in Xia Qing's house.

The wooden nest on the wall was for the squirrel, the tree branch in the corner was for the white-faced monk-faced monkey, and the wolves and sheep probably rested on the tatami and the hanging chairs.

Xia Qing had also kept the tree branch in the room, which meant deep down she was hoping the little monkey would come back.

Zhang Song pressed down his excitement and obediently sat watching the science video about microorganisms playing on the TV.

Before he came in, who had been sitting here watching the video?

Twenty minutes later, Xia Qing carried the anesthetized old wolf in and gently placed it on the CT scanner's scanning bed.

Zhang Song operated the CT scanner while teaching Xia Qing how to judge the wolf's physical condition from the cross-sectional images on the scanner's display. "The CT scan's cross-sectional images are made up of black, white, and gray. The depth of the gray represents different tissue densities…"

"Song Ge, can I record a video?" Zhang Song was being too technical. Xia Qing wasn't a brain-domain evolver, and she couldn't remember everything just by relying on her brain.

"Of course."

After Xia Qing started recording with her phone, Zhang Song began introducing the CT scanner's operation from the beginning again.

Xia Qing recorded while studying seriously. The Broken-Waist Wolf also lay at the second-floor stairway, listening with a solemn expression.

After the scan was done, Zhang Song told Xia Qing to take the old wolf off first and put it back in the sheep pen, and only continued analyzing the images after she came back:

"The CT scan uses X-rays to penetrate the scanned object from different angles. After the sensors collect the data, the computer combines the data to generate a 3D image. This image can be rotated, enlarged, reduced…"

"This is the liver. The liver is divided into left and right lobes. In clinical diagnosis and surgery, it's further divided into five lobes and eight segments… The uneven shades of gray mean the density of this wolf's right lobe is uneven… This is the bile duct… There's bile pooling here…"

Zhang Song spent half an hour giving Xia Qing a detailed explanation of the old wolf's CT scan images, so she would know the wolf had liver fibrosis, cholangitis, gastritis, decreased bone density, and other conditions.

When Zhang Song finally finished, Xia Qing, whose phone was almost dead and whose head was dizzy and eyes were blurry, asked, "Song Ge, would you say this wolf's condition is serious?"

The Broken-Waist Wolf, already asleep at the stairway, twitched its ears and immediately perked up.