April 22nd, 342, 6:00 AM.
Song Pinxuan opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling.
His gaze was filled with the weariness of ages.
He had just had a dream.
A very, very long dream.
The dream began where he was last woken by He Xiao and the others.
After the new generation of rice bugs was successfully developed, it was taken for testing, only to discover that it contained an unknown substance.
And this unknown substance bore striking similarities to certain properties of delta particles!
The people at Research Institute No. 1 used this as a reason to declare that the new generation of genetically modified rice bugs developed by Research Institute No. 7 was unsafe, and vehemently opposed the release of the new generation of genetically modified rice bugs.
In the dream, Song Pinxuan, on one hand, instructed He Xiao and the others to continue collecting organic matter to prepare for hatching a new batch of rice bugs.
Due to the obstruction from Research Institute No. 1, the progress of collecting organic matter was extremely slow.
On the other hand, to prove that the new generation of rice bugs was not problematic, he, as the director of Research Institute No. 7, personally consumed all of the first batch of new generation rice bugs!
By the time the dream's He Xiao and the others discovered it, it was too late.
They wanted to eat them along with the dream's Song Pinxuan, but he refused.
“No matter what, this unknown substance carries risks. I’ll take the risk alone; you don’t need to accompany me…”
Finally, after two months of consumption, the dream’s Song Pinxuan finished all the rice bugs hatched from Tang Li’s corpse, and nothing happened to him.
The dream’s Song Pinxuan then used this to pressure the higher-ups of the Jiangcheng Underground City.
Coupled with the prestige of Song Pinxuan’s grandfather, they finally managed to obtain organic matter like hair, cotton, and down, which was left over from the rice bugs from Research Institute No. 1.
Ultimately, relying on the consumption of these materials, the second batch of rice bugs from Research Institute No. 7 was cultivated.
And remarkably, this batch of rice bugs did not contain that unknown substance.
The new generation of rice bugs developed by Research Institute No. 7 successfully replaced the rice bugs developed by the Japanese at Research Institute No. 1, and further developed other types of meat bugs and vegetable bugs.
And in Song Pinxuan's dream, ever since he consumed the first batch of rice bugs in his dream, his subsequent memories became clearer.
The dream’s Song Pinxuan lived to be 55 years old.
He lived his entire life in the Jiangcheng Underground City.
He clearly remembered that he ate the first rice bug on June 3rd, 345.
From 345 to 375, he dreamed about everything that happened during those 30 years in great detail.
Song Pinxuan pulled back the curtains behind him and looked at the bright sunlight outside.
He murmured softly, “Are humans… really facing extinction?”
After a long pause, Song Pinxuan came back to his senses.
Thinking about what happened yesterday and what happened in his dream, Song Pinxuan quickly got out of bed, washed up, put on his protective suit, and left the dormitory.
Just as Song Pinxuan had thought yesterday, in last night’s dream, he did dream of a method to enhance mental strength.
After consuming that batch of rice bugs fed with Tang Li’s flesh and blood, his mental strength was the strongest.
For the next 30 years, he traveled all over the country and visited the three major underground cities, but he couldn’t find anyone whose mental strength was comparable to his.
Therefore, in his dream, the brain-computer interface interaction function he invented could only be used by himself.
It was obvious that eating the rice bugs fed with Tang Li’s flesh and blood, or rather, consuming Tang Li’s flesh and blood, was the method to enhance mental strength!
However, as a scientist with a conscience, he naturally could not do such a thing.
He would also not tell anyone about this.
The unknown substance contained within that first batch of rice bugs fed with Tang Li’s flesh and blood was not found in subsequent rice bugs.
Song Pinxuan firmly believed that the unknown substance was the true method to enhance mental strength!
And Tang Li was merely the carrier of this unknown substance!
Soon, Song Pinxuan arrived at Xu Zhenhua's office.
Upon entering the office, he found that Xu Zhenhua had indeed arrived very early.
Song Pinxuan directly stated his purpose: “Director Xu, I hope Xu Xinyue will no longer appear in my laboratory… no, she will no longer appear before me!”
“I’ve had enough of her stupidity and ignorance, I don’t want her to interrupt my experimental progress anymore, and I don’t want to be harassed by her in my personal life!”
Hearing Song Pinxuan’s blunt words, Xu Zhenhua was stunned.
By the time he reacted, Song Pinxuan had already left.
Xu Zhenhua took off his reading glasses and tossed them onto the desk.
He rubbed his temples, shook his head, and sighed, “Young people, their wings have grown strong…”