At that time, Weng Quan could spend 24 hours a day in the laboratory.
When Xia Jin extended an olive branch to him, Weng Quan did not even ask about salary and benefits before immediately going to Xia Jin's side.
However, the young man who was once full of research had ultimately been lost in the torrent of time, leaving no trace to be found.
Xia Jin took one last look at Weng Quan's corpse and then at Gao Ye, who had appeared from behind the door at some unknown time.
"Dispose of the body, and deactivate the short-haired woman's identity card. This small matter, you should be able to handle it, right?"
He gave the order with utter naturalness, without the slightest ripple.
Gao Ye was momentarily stunned. He had initially thought that Xia Jin had gone to such great lengths and paid such a price to retrieve Weng Quan's body for a reason. He had not expected that he would now casually ask him to dispose of it.
As for the fate of that foolish woman, Gao Ye did not care much. From the moment he saw the naked desire to conquer Xia Jin in her eyes, Gao Ye knew that the stupid woman would not live long.
Only such an idiot would believe that "justice" and "law" still existed on this lighthouse.
Rules were always made by people, and when rules only served to protect the interests of a few, they became exploitation.
And on the lighthouse, only those who toiled daily for survival still believed in fairness.
Gao Ye looked at the corpse on the ground, which had already begun to emit a foul odor.
This group of people seemed to have forgotten one very important thing.
Now... it was the apocalypse.
So why were there still so many foolish people?
Still clinging to the idea of heroes emerging from chaos.
But this was not a chaotic era; it was the apocalypse.
However, Gao Ye did not mind. He revealed a faint smile in a place Xia Jin could not see.
After all, if Weng Quan hadn't courted his own death, Gao Ye would never have seen the light of day.
In a way, he even had to thank the man.
"Alright, Doctor."
Gao Ye said, then prepared to walk towards Weng Quan's corpse.
At this moment, Xia Jin suddenly spoke, "The things Weng Quan left behind, you will take over from now on. You are a smart person, and I like smart people. But Weng Quan was also a smart person once."
Gao Ye knew this was a hint, but also a warning.
Xia Jin was telling him that he could give it to him, but he couldn't actively demand it.
Gao Ye nodded respectfully.
The young man, barely in his early twenties, had become exceptionally cautious due to witnessing too much human suffering.
Xia Jin turned and returned to his laboratory.
He looked at the faint blue light swaying in the glass vessel before him, his eyes holding a hint of confusion.
"I am clearly the chosen one, so why are you unwilling to submit to me?" Xia Jin looked at the mycelium before him.
And these mycelia were very different from those at Xu An's place; they looked as if they were about to die, listless and drooping.
"In this world, besides me, do you have any other choice?"
Xia Jin spoke as if talking to himself, uttering inexplicable words to the clusters of mycelia.
But in this room, Xia Jin was not the only one with consciousness.
"I am the one destined by fate, so why are you unwilling to submit to me?"
He seemed to be asking, and also answering.
But the consciousness slumbering within a certain cluster of mycelia understood the meaning behind Xia Jin's words.
Xia Jin was the reborn one.
He had used his rebirth to accelerate the changes in the already tense situation of the previous life.
In his previous life, he had actually participated in the lighthouse construction plan, although it was not yet called the lighthouse but the Ark Project.
The higher-ups argued endlessly over personal interests. As a technical staff member, his influence was negligible. No one would listen to someone who only buried his head in data.
But one day, he discovered that his observations had yielded a substance never before seen, a life form that seemed to possess life consciousness beyond that of humans.
And this life form seemed to possess high intelligence, just like humans, rather than the simple life consciousness of animals and plants.
This discovery excited him greatly.
However, those in power decided to face death together with all the people of Huaxia.
The previously developed lottery system was abolished, and the Ark would accept every citizen of Huaxia.
At that time, Xia Jin experienced a direct realization of human foolishness for the first time.
A truth that even the ancients had summarized.
It is not poverty but inequality that is the cause of distress.
With so many people on the Ark, it would inevitably become chaotic within a year.
The scarcity of resources would directly lead to the extinction of humanity.
Xia Jin even found these humans laughable.
It was also from then on that Xia Jin removed himself from the human camp.
He began to focus on studying the life form he had discovered. Initially, it was just a blue mass of light.
It was so tiny that it was almost invisible. If Xia Jin hadn't noticed it by chance, it might have slipped away from him.
The global environment was not yet so harsh at that time.
It was only the glaciers that were melting due to high temperatures.
The government issued a few perfunctory reports, stating that the global warming was caused by the ozone layer.
Xia Jin watched the television, mockingly observing these foolish humans.
Despite imminent disaster, they still placed themselves in the lofty position of saviors.
Believing that they could solve all the problems that arose on Planet Blue.
Until later, their laboratory received a sample of a glacial virus from Antarctica, labeled as a virus that had been dormant for 25 million years.
At that time, Xia Jin's level was not high enough to handle such things.
However, sometimes, scientists are the ones who come closest to the truth of this world.
Therefore, in the later stages, many people in the laboratory chose to leave and stay with their families.
For them, the closer they got to the truth, the more despair they felt.
As one event after another occurred, they knew that Planet Blue was sick.
A major catastrophe that would sweep across humanity was likely imminent, and they could not, and were powerless to, prevent it.
However, this gave Xia Jin an opportunity. His permissions within the laboratory rose higher and higher.
He was astonished to find that the ball of light was growing, and as the ball of light grew, it could engage in basic communication with Xia Jin.
Xia Jin ended his recollection and looked at the ball of light before him again.
"Planet Blue is beyond saving. You once said that this world is composed of countless molecules and atoms, and that the outside world is vast, so vast that humans cannot even imagine it. But why did you betray our promise first?..."
...
On the other side, Xu An received a long-lost phone call.