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Huo Yingjie naturally understood this principle: if you take the blame too much, you'll become hunchbacked even if you're not.

"I know what I'm doing," Huo Yingjie said. "You need to control your temper. Don't argue with others just because they say a few words. They're in cahoots, and they'll still bully us in the end. We're outnumbered and will suffer!"

"Understood, boss," Zhou Yuanchao said. "I argued with them before because you never taught them a lesson, and I was furious. Now that we're going to teach them a lesson, of course I won't be so eager to argue with them."

"Alright, be careful," Huo Yingjie said. He knew that because he was young, he would be ostracized in such a team, but he didn't expect to be ostracized to this extent.

This is hardly the atmosphere for scientific research; it's even darker than politics!

In the afternoon, they went to their workplace and received the task list and workflow chart for their new jobs.

The group leader, surnamed Chen, was around fifty years old. He was thin and appeared incorruptible. He usually spoke and smiled kindly, but his actions were quite unethical.

Huo Yingjie received the task list and went through it on a draft paper that very evening.

Damn it, it's wrong again.

Huo Yingjie was absolutely certain that Team Leader Chen was trying to trip him up.

When Zhou Yuanchao saw the theoretical data on the boss's manuscript, he cursed, "That bastard surnamed Chen is treating us like fools! He gave us a wrong plan and gave the correct one to someone else in the group. That way, even if we submit the correct plan, he will use the excuse that we can't get involved in other group members' tasks to exclude us. In the end, we'll be the ones who get scolded."

Huo Yingjie thought for a moment and said, "How about this, Yuanchao? If we don't do this plan, Chen will criticize us for disobeying the group's work arrangements. After all, even a failed plan can provide some insights."

“Yes, if we don’t achieve results, we’ll be ridiculed by those people again,” Zhou Yuanchao said. “How about this, boss? We’ll work a little harder and do two experiments. That way, we’ll provide the relevant data for the one that’s incorrect; and if we do the correct one, it will show that we’re not without innovative thinking.”

"Sigh, the method is good, but what about the materials?" Huo Yingjie had also considered this method, but without the materials, their plan was just a pile of waste paper, nothing at all.

"This won't work, that won't work either." Zhou Yuanchao said angrily, "I really want to beat up that guy surnamed Chen."

"Alright, let's not act impulsively," Huo Yingjie said. "Now let's apply to Team Leader Chen through the proper channels. If that doesn't work, I'll apply to our superiors."

"Alas, this is all we can do," Zhou Yuanchao said, working with Huo Yingjie to refine the correct plan.

The next day at work, before the project started, there was a mobilization meeting where we talked about past achievements and experiences, expressed our determination, and discussed what to do next!

Huo Yingjie and Zhou Yuanchao were assigned to the last position because of their young age and lack of experience.

Huo Yingjie stood up and said, "Team Leader Chen, Comrade Zhou and I spent the whole night yesterday calculating the task list you sent us. We found that some of the theoretical support was wrong. We have corrected it and we are applying to conduct the experiment according to this plan."

Team Leader Chen smiled kindly and said, "I'm glad you two young comrades are so serious, but as you know, these plans were all decided in advance. Any unexpected situations will be handled in the experiment. You just need to obey the orders from your superiors and do the experiment carefully."

“But when we conduct experiments according to the task list here, the results are wrong. Then everyone will say that we are wasting the group’s resources and dragging the group down. But don’t forget, this is a task assigned to us by the group. We have always done it according to the task list. The group has never responded to our questions and requests. So why should we bear the consequences of an already wrong experimental task?” Huo Yingjie held down Zhou Yuanchao, who was about to stand up, and said calmly with a smile.

"Young comrade, don't act rashly!" Team Leader Chen was embarrassed. Every time Huo Yingjie submitted revisions, they were perfect and more accurate than his previous analyses, so he left all of them to Huo Yingjie and his students.

Huo Yingjie smiled and said, "I didn't act impulsively; I was just being realistic. The experiment I conducted according to the wrong plan naturally yielded wrong results, but that's not Zhou Yuanchao's fault, so we won't take the blame for anything unnecessary."

"We're all colleagues in the same group, so we need to work together and not get caught up in trivial matters that could hinder team unity and affect work progress," Team Leader Chen began to speak eloquently, hoping that Huo Yingjie wouldn't dwell on the issue.

“Working together is essential, but now I need Team Leader Chen's signature to prove that we're not without ideas or lacking in ability.” Huo Yingjie smiled and took out two documents. “This one is the task list that Zhou Yuanchao and I received yesterday. This is a new plan that Zhou Yuanchao and I worked on overnight. According to regulations, this one needs your signature, which you haven't done before. Please also have Team Leader Chen sign this one. If the final result is correct, then please, Team Leader Chen and all the team members, don't give us strange looks or speak to us with disdain.”

Team Leader Chen was taken aback, not expecting Huo Yingjie to pull this stunt.

He only signed the task sheets after they completed the experiments and were collected. As for the other document submitted by Huo Yingjie, it was copied out and ended up as a dozen or so pieces of waste paper.

"Are you questioning my leadership abilities?" Team Leader Chen asked with a dark face, trying to use his status and age to suppress Huo Yingjie and Zhou Yuanchao.

Team Leader Chen was always the one who had the final say in the team, and no one dared to contradict him.

"They're questioning your leadership," Zhou Yuanchao couldn't help but say. "We've been here for two months, and we've been scapegoated one after another. If we were just stupid, it wouldn't be so bad, but every time we manage to deduce the correct theoretical support, we still get criticized, and our ideas become someone else's achievement. We may be young, but we're not stupid!"

"You...you..." Team Leader Chen pointed angrily at Huo Yingjie and Zhou Yuanchao.

"You two arrogant brats, don't push your luck!" one of the men, a balding man in his forties, roared. "We are under military management; the most important thing is to obey orders. You are disorganized and undisciplined..." (To be continued.)