“…You made it up?” Ling Shuying’s eyelids twitched.
“Is this a trick within a trick?” she wondered, rubbing her throbbing temples.
She had been fooled again.
Back when she was still a graduate student, people frequently duped her.
A senior in her research group once tricked her into working for free for over half a month under the guise of “data the advisor asked for.” The truth only came to light when she brought it up to their advisor during a later group meeting.
In the end, that senior simply treated her to a meal as meager compensation.
Later, when Ling Shuying became the senior member of the lab, she was tasked with guiding a newly joined junior sister.
Looking at the naive yet ambitious newcomer, she was reminded of her past self.
Thus, she helped run experiments, process data, edit papers, and ultimately gifted her junior sister two first-author publications.
Only to discover later that the junior sister had given all those hard-earned achievements to her cheating boyfriend…
Such incidents were too numerous to count.
Ling Shuying was a master of research, hailed as a leading figure at the Green Algae Institute, yet she was completely clueless about the ways of the world.
She could calculate solutions to world-class problems, but she could never fathom the human heart.
Not even when dealing with someone as simple-minded and savage as Hai Yao.
She took a deep breath and slowly exhaled to calm herself down.
It seemed she needed to brush up on her psychology.
She hoped there were suitable books in the study.
Standing up abruptly, she finished the fish in her hand and grabbed the remaining two.
Then, she stared fixedly at the half-eaten fish Hai Yao was currently holding.
Seeing that Ling Shuying wanted to snatch the one in her hand too, Hai Yao hurriedly shielded it.
“You want to take what’s already in my mouth?
It’s just a fish.”
“Who would want something you’ve already bitten into?
Consider it a gift,” Ling Shuying retorted, turning on her heel to leave.
Hai Yao looked at the departing Ling Shuying and the roasted fish she was about to eat.
After a moment of hesitation, she called out loudly, “Don’t go, don’t go!
That story wasn’t entirely made up!”
Hearing this, Ling Shuying stopped and turned her head, waiting for Hai Yao’s next words.
“…Give the roasted fish back first.”
“If you won’t talk, I’m leaving.”
Hai Yao stomped her feet anxiously.
Seeing her meal about to fly away, she spoke at lightning speed: “That, that…
mechanic!
A mechanic once came to our village!
She only had one arm, but she could make all sorts of things.
The two days she was there, she made quite a few tools for the villagers!
“But she didn’t stay long before she left.
I heard—I heard she lives on another island!”
Ling Shuying was fairly satisfied with this answer, but she wasn’t going to let her off so easily.
The City State, or somewhere else?”
“I don’t know.
I don’t usually stay in the village much, and I only crossed paths with her once.”
Hearing this, Ling Shuying turned to leave again.
Hai Yao quickly added, “If!
If we can leave this island and go back to Bihai Island, I can ask the villagers for you.
Someone there definitely knows!”
Ling Shuying nodded in satisfaction.
“That’s more like it.”
“Can I have the fish now?
I’ve only eaten fruit today, and I’m starving to death.”
Ling Shuying looked at Hai Yao with a faint, enigmatic smile.
“You can, but you have to trade your knife for it.” Still brooding over being deceived, she was now driving a hard bargain to get back at her.
“Y-y-you…!” Hai Yao’s face flushed bright red with anger, her stumbling words failing her.
“Not this one!
But I can make you a new one.
In exchange, I want a week’s worth of meals, and it has to be the kind you cook by the beach!”
Ling Shuying was a little surprised.
She thought, “She knows I cook by the beach, which means she’s been observing me.
For how long?
Why hasn’t she shown herself until now?”
Pondering this, she stretched out her hand and held up three fingers in front of her.
“Three days.”
“Five days!”
“Three days.”
Veins popped on Hai Yao’s forehead as she clicked her tongue incessantly.
Finally, she gave in.
“You City State profiteer…
Three days it is!
“And no more playing tricks!” she emphasized.
She was the one who played tricks first.
Ling Shuying rolled her eyes inwardly and parroted, “No more playing tricks.” Leaving the two skewers of roasted fish behind, she headed home.
The next morning.
In the sea erosion cave, Ling Shuying was conducting a routine inspection of her algae seedlings when she noticed an anomaly.
The leaves of seedling A-1 were slightly pale, lacking yesterday’s vibrant color, and the tips seemed to have microscopic damage.
Seedling A-2 appeared normal.
She activated Qing Ling to perform a microscopic scan, enhancing her vision for a detailed analysis.
The Qing Ling model revealed that several nearly invisible, transparent specks were attached to the surface of seedling A-1’s leaves, while extremely fine, fuzz-like growths had begun to proliferate at the edge of the substrate.
Ling Shuying dipped her finger into the seawater inside the cave, picked up a couple of drops, tasted them, and spat them out.
Her taste buds provided immediate feedback: the water temperature was about 1.5°C higher than usual, and there was a slight, abnormal fluctuation in salinity.
Her preliminary judgment was that a small-scale, high-salinity warm current had likely swept briefly through the waters near the island, causing minute fluctuations in the temperature and salinity within the sea erosion cave.
Such variations would have practically zero impact on the natural environment, but they were a fatal blow to the cultivating algae seedlings.
The microscopic damage on the leaf tips was likely caused by some kind of parasite that had hatched due to the water disturbance and started feeding on the plant. This story is hosted at novelping(.)com.
She had to deal with it immediately; otherwise, neither seedling would survive.
These seedlings were the foundation of her scientific research on the island.
She had to act fast.
Just as Ling Shuying was searching her memory for similar parasite species and formulating a solution, Hai Yao ambled over, carrying two bone knives.
“I knew you’d be here.
Here are the knives—a cleaver and a dagger for cutting meat.
Keep them safe.”
Ling Shuying offered a noncommittal hum.
Ignoring how Hai Yao had managed to find this place, she continued to lean over the petri dish, engrossed in observation.
Seeing her hunched over with a deep frown, Hai Yao grew curious and leaned in slightly for a peek.
“Don’t come any closer!
Get out!” Ling Shuying immediately snapped in a low voice.
Startled by the sudden outburst, Hai Yao took two steps back and said, “Have your little green dots attracted bugs?
There’s a problem with the water.”
Realizing there was more to Hai Yao’s words, Ling Shuying stood up and retreated outside the cave.
“…The algae seedlings are very sensitive to their environment.
I was worried your presence inside would cause a disturbance,” she explained slowly.
“Do you know what kind of bugs these are?”
This time, it was Hai Yao who offered a faint, enigmatic smile.
She stood face-to-face with Ling Shuying and said nothing.
“…I’ll cover two more days of meals for you.”
“Three days.”
“Three days, fine, three days.” Ling Shuying hurriedly agreed.
The cultivation of Basic Algae was crucial to the success of her farming endeavors.
Even if she abandoned these two samples and started over, she might just repeat the same mistakes due to the exact same issue.
Exchanging three days of food for a solution to cultivate her algae seedlings was well worth the price.
Seeing that Ling Shuying had agreed, Hai Yao nodded and pointed at the seawater.
“Look at this water.
“Yesterday evening, the seawater felt warm to the touch and tasted so salty it was bitter.
That’s not a good sign.
It’s during times like these that little things start acting up.”
“I already figured that part out.
What do you mean by ‘little things’?” Ling Shuying pressed, eager for the next answer.
“Uh…
cabbage worms?” Hai Yao scratched her head, unsure of how to describe them.
“When this kind of warm, salty water passes through, it usually brings some invisible filth.
In the shallow pools on Bihai Island where we raise sea vegetable seedlings, if we don’t clean them out quickly when this kind of water hits, the seedlings will rot.”