Chapter 3 Chapter 3 "Bah, scumbag!"
"Now that we're here, I won't go in with you. I'll wait for you at the door. Come out and find me when you're done." Li Xiu said.
Jiang Qing stared at the wooden door marked "Beast Taming Laboratory" and knocked lightly.
"Come in."
As the sound fell to the ground, the door opened automatically.
A cross screen divided the desk into four parts. As soon as she stepped in, a parrot flew onto her shoulder.
The bird's beak opened and closed, and its tone was sharp: "What are you doing?"
Jiang Qing blinked and glanced at the other people in the office at a loss.
Someone kindly reminded him: "It's the bird director of the laboratory. You'd better answer its questions seriously."
Jiang Qing nodded and said respectfully, "Hello, Director Niao, I'm Jiang Qing. Teacher Chen Ming asked me to wait for her in the office. I need to register some information."
"Okay." Director Bird spread his wings, flew to a seat near the window, and said, "Just sit here and wait."
"The pressure in our school is quite high. The director is exhausted." Jiang Qing hesitantly followed the director to sit down.
When the teacher in the office next door heard her words, he immediately laughed. When he saw that the laughter had almost died down, he finally explained: "Director Bird, it really is a bird."
"Then is it also a spiritual pet?" Jiang Qing showed a surprised expression.
"Of course." The male teacher next door nodded.
Jiang Qing asked: "Can the spirit pet speak?"
The bird director is different from ordinary parrots in that he can communicate freely with it and has his own thoughts, which are things that parrots do not have.
"Student, I can tell you're not paying attention in class." The male teacher tutted. "Spiritual pets have always been able to express themselves, just not in the same language we humans use. But that doesn't mean they can't speak."
"On the contrary, they are a species that is smarter than us. Some spirit pets are naturally intelligent. After they learn our human language, they can communicate with us without any obstacles."
The male teacher said: "Of course, I have also seen some extremely intelligent pets, and they would even dislike their masters for being stupid."
"That's very clever." Jiang Qing agreed.
"Hey, teacher." Jiang Qing suddenly had an idea and asked, "Then the spirit beast you mentioned that dislikes its master's stupidity, can't the contract be terminated?"
"Student Jiang Qing, right?" The male teacher's expression suddenly became serious.
"Yeah." Jiang Qing nodded, still confused.
"What on earth did you learn in class?" the male teacher sighed, somewhat disappointed in his student. "You don't even know these basic common sense."
Jiang Qing: "..."
She also wanted to know what the original owner had learned in class!
The male teacher met her clear eyes, and considering that she was willing to learn after class, he decided to give her some tutoring.
He cleared his throat and said, "Once a spirit pet forms a contract with a person, it is impossible to cancel the contract unless the pet dies."
"The same goes for beastmasters. A spirit pet and a beastmaster are like a partnership. A contract is a bond that binds them both. If either party breaks the contract, they must be prepared for the consequences of the contract."
Jiang Qing: "What are the consequences?"
"Life." said the male teacher.
Jiang Qing: "It's so serious!"
"Of course!" The male teacher glanced at Jiang Qing, "Why? From what you said, it seems that you want to abandon your own spirit pet?"
"Bah, what a scumbag!" Director Bird echoed from the side.
"No, no." Jiang Qing waved his hands quickly, and smiled guiltily afterwards.
"There's no best," the male teacher said. "Student Jiang Qing, these are all your own choices. If you're not satisfied, why would you force yourself into a contract in the first place? So just be honest and don't dwell on these unnecessary things."
"Okay..." Jiang Qing was speechless.
She doesn't want to sign a contract either, but has reality ever given her a chance?
"Jiang Qing."
While they were chatting, Chen Ming suddenly came back.
"Teacher Chen Ming." Jiang Qing stood up immediately after hearing that and returned the seat to her.
As soon as Chen Ming sat down, Director Bird flew to her shoulder and rubbed her head affectionately.
Jiang Qing immediately understood that Director Bird was actually Chen Ming's pet.
"Please sit down." Chen Ming touched Director Bird soothingly, turned back to Jiang Qing and motioned her to sit down.
Her gaze fell directly on Jiang Qing's wrist, where the golden contract totem was faintly visible: "Your spirit pet, summon it out again and show it to me."
Jiang Qing activated the seal of the contract as instructed.
A golden light flashed, accompanied by slight spatial fluctuations, and the image of Zhu Tianba appeared in her hand again.
Chen Ming interrupted her with a wave of his hand: "It's not an image, it's your spirit pet."
Jiang Qing scratched his head, searched through his memory, and finally found the method of summoning.
She made a gesture and summoned Zhu Tianba again.
It seemed to be a little more awake than when it was on the spirit beast platform. Its small eyes barely opened a crack, and it looked around blankly at the unfamiliar environment. Then, it habitually twitched its nose and began to look for something to dig on the smooth floor, making a faint "humming" sound.
"A pig, a pig." The bird director stood on Chen Ming's shoulder, tilted his head, with doubt in his single eye, and his tone also had a hint of the pickyness unique to birds.
Chen Ming ignored Director Bird. She pushed her glasses and fixed her sharp eyes on Zhu Tianba lying on the ground.
She did not approach rashly, but took out a palm-sized, tablet-like device from the drawer and scanned Zhu Tianba up and down.
The instrument emitted a soft blue light and moved slowly on Zhu Tianba's body.
"The energy reaction is indeed extremely weak, almost masked by its basic vital signs." Chen Ming muttered to himself as he watched the data jumping on the instrument screen, which was also full of question marks and garbled characters.
"Physiological structure... Preliminary scans show that the bone density and muscle fiber arrangement... Hmm? There are some subtle differences from the standard domestic piglet diagram... But the differences are scattered and unsystematic..."
The data stream on the instrument screen flashed faster.
"At the genetic level, preliminary rapid screening... the proportion of unknown fragments is as high as 37.8%?" Chen Ming's brows were tightly furrowed, and the eyes behind the lenses were full of confusion and a strong desire for knowledge.
Chen Ming: "How is this possible? Even for newly discovered variants of exotic beasts, similar or homologous parts of their gene sequences can usually be found in existing databases, unless it is a completely isolated independent branch of evolution, or..."
She didn't finish her words, but the solemnity in her tone made the air in the office seem a little heavier.
The male teacher and the bird director also quieted down and looked curiously at the little pig that was still digging the ground ignorantly.
Zhu Tianba seemed to be attracted by the blue light of the instrument. He stopped, raised his little head, and tried hard to see the glowing object clearly.
He tried to move his round body forward, but he lost his balance and fell to the ground with a "bang", kicking his four short legs in vain.
"Stupid pig..." Director Bird said sharply.
Jiang Qing's mouth twitched, and he quickly bent down to straighten Zhu Tianba.
"Student Jiang Qing, please tell me in detail how you contracted it, and in which area? It is still a cub, so please also describe the characteristics of the sow." Chen Ming put down the instrument and looked at Jiang Qing with a serious tone.
This classmate was definitely one of the most difficult students she had ever met in her career.
Don't be fooled by her quiet appearance, she is actually so rebellious that she contracts a newborn cub.
Before we left, the school had repeatedly stated that they didn't want to contract cubs! Don't contract cubs! Don't contract cubs!
The power of exotic beasts lies in the fact that they are born to go through the cruel survival of the fittest. Wild exotic beasts do not have the mature fetal preservation technology of humans, so their cubs are screened by nature as soon as they are born, and only those that grow up successfully are qualified exotic beasts.
The cubs are unstable and too easy to die, and the cost of raising them is much higher than that of grown exotic beasts.
It is difficult for students, especially novices, to raise it to adulthood.
The school is also unwilling to see the students' years of hard work go to waste, so when signing a contract, they will emphasize not to contract a newly born monster.
Moreover, newborn cubs are not necessarily easier to contract than grown monsters, as they are usually protected by a powerful and irritable mother.
It’s a pity that the other party has a mental strength of 90, but his mind is not on the right track.
Jiang Qing had no idea about this. She tried hard to recall the incident: "In the primeval jungle deep within the examination hall, near the edge of the 'Giant Wood Swamp', the sow was very large, very, very large. I have never seen such a large pig before, and she had knocked down several trees around. She was in labor and her condition was very critical, so I... helped her." She omitted the details of her time travel and the sow's death, and only spoke of the key information.
"Not long after giving birth, she died of exhaustion," said Jiang Qing.
"The edge of Giant Wood Swamp? Abnormally large..." Chen Ming's fingers tapped lightly on the table, as if he was accessing the knowledge base in his mind. "The list of strange beasts recorded in the examination hall doesn't include any pig-like beasts that match this description."
"Could it be that there's a loophole in the barrier surrounding the examination hall, allowing an unknown beast from the outside world to break in? Or..." She turned her gaze to Zhu Tianba again, probing deeper, "Is this a species of beast that we've never known about, an extremely rare or newly discovered species?"
"Teacher Chen, what's going on with it?" Jiang Qing pointed at Zhu Tianba, who was still nudging around her feet and trying to nibble on her shoelaces.
Chen Ming pondered for a moment: "The situation is special. We will send people to the Giant Wood Swamp to check on the sow's condition."
Chen Ming finished speaking and glanced at Jiang Qing. "The Spirit Beast Platform's preliminary assessment is reasonable. It is indeed in an extremely special cub stage. Its physiological characteristics and energy reactions are unstable, making it impossible to undergo a regular rating. There is a high possibility that it is an 'unrecorded exotic beast'."
She picked up a pen and quickly wrote on the screen: "Student Jiang Qing, your contracted spirit beast's potential rating is tentatively set as 'Unknown (to be observed)'. Your Beast Tamer rating will be entered into the system as the initial human level one, but you will need to cooperate with subsequent observation and research."
Jiang Qing blinked: "Research? How to research?"
"Don't be nervous." Chen Ming saw her concerns. "It's not a dissection or any harmful experiments. The main purpose is to bring it here regularly for some non-invasive energy fluctuation monitoring, physiological index recording, behavioral observation, and... as it grows, see if we can stimulate or observe any special abilities it may have."
"We need to collect more data and try to analyze the 'unknown energy imprint' and genetic mysteries on it. This is very important for enriching the spiritual beast atlas and understanding the diversity of exotic beasts. Of course, this requires your consent and cooperation." Chen Ming said.
She paused and added, "In return, the school will provide you with an additional 'Special Research Subsidy' to be used for the cultivation of your spirit pet, as its needs may be quite special. Furthermore, until its potential rating is determined, as a Beast Tamer, you will enjoy the same treatment and course resources as other Human Beast Tamers within the academy."
Jiang Qing lowered his head to look at Zhu Tianba, who was standing at his feet, ignorant and only caring about his shoelaces.
She understood.
She also gets subsidies for researching new species.
And she only needs to be responsible for taking care of Zhu Tianba.
Taking care of a pig is a piece of cake for her!
There was such a good thing. Jiang Qing agreed immediately: "Okay, Teacher Chen, I will cooperate."
Chen Ming was stunned for a moment. Jiang Qing agreed so readily that she always felt that this classmate was up to something bad again.
Jiang Qing had no idea that in Chen Ming's mind, she had been labeled a "problem student."
Chen Ming quickly completed the operation on the light screen: "The information has been recorded and filed. Remember, bring it to me in the laboratory on the afternoon of the first week of every month. Now, you can take it back. Take good care of it. The cub period is crucial."
Her eyes fell on Zhu Tianba again, filled with the enthusiasm of a scientific researcher. "I'm looking forward to what surprises, or shocks, its growth will bring."
Jiang Qing picked up Zhu Tianba, who was still trying to nibble at her sleeve, and bowed slightly to Chen Ming and the male teacher: "Thank you, Teacher Chen. I'll be leaving now."
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Note from [Director Bird's Daily Work Log]: A student came to the laboratory today... and a pig, a strange combination.
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