Besides his mutated physical abilities, Old Qian's dog has an exceptionally bad temper. Don't even mention getting close to pet it; if someone happens to pass by while it's eating, it will chase them for two miles.
He listens to no one but Old Qian and what he says.
Even though he usually acts arrogant and doesn't want to talk to her, if I hadn't beaten him up a few times and made him submit, he might have grown wings and flown into the sky.
When has she ever acted like this, begging for a pat?
Ruan Xianxian squatted down and petted the big dog.
Old Zhong stood up. "What did it say?"
Ruan Xianxian smiled and said, "It said that ever since it chewed up your favorite red underwear, you've held a grudge and won't even give it any chicken bones when we eat roast chicken."
I was heartbroken for a long time afterward. I took my underwear to the aunt downstairs to have it mended, but she called me an old pervert and chased me up two flights of stairs with a broom.
Grandma was stunned!
Zhang Lizhong's face darkened instantly, and he looked at Tie Niu as if he were looking at his father's killer. The dog whimpered and hid behind Ruan Xianxian.
"It also said..."
"Enough!" Old Zhong was like a cat whose tail had been stepped on. He almost jumped up and interrupted sharply. His usual aura of a sweeping monk disappeared, and he became a picture of otherworldly elegance.
"Come upstairs, Old Zhao is waiting for you on the second floor."
Ruan Xianxian turned around as she climbed the stairs and said, "Old Zhong, don't mend your torn underwear, just buy a new pair."
As soon as he finished speaking, a heavy breathing came from behind him.
Ruan is not staying anytime soon.
As the grandfather and granddaughter climbed the corner, Zhang Lizhong sat back down and muttered, "What does this little brat know? Do you think you can buy a new one without a ticket?"
New for three years, old for three years, patched and mended for another three years.
Old Qian is so poor he can barely afford food, where would he get the money to buy me underwear?
Tie Niu had good hearing, and he immediately turned around and complained to Ruan Xianxian, "He said you were talking behind my back."
Patting the dog's head, "Good dog!"
The layout of the second floor is completely different from the first floor. A corridor leads straight to the end of the street, with two rows of offices arranged in a staggered fashion, their doors wide open.
A group of elderly men were standing or sitting, and occasionally someone would bang on the table and argue loudly. Ruan Xianxian almost mistook her for a teacher's office at a university.
Grandma smiled and tucked a stray hair behind her ear. "No doubt about it, many of them used to be university professors. Did you hear that loudest one?"
Professor of History at Tsinghua University.
The two passed by without attracting anyone's attention. The grandmother led her to knock on the door of an office in the middle of the building.
After receiving permission, they entered. There were two desks, and four people were sitting opposite each other. The moment the door opened, all eyes turned to the two of them.
Sharp, wary, scrutinizing...
Ruan Xianxian recognized that look; it was the sharpness of a soldier. She had a pretty good idea of what was going on.
"Show proof, verify identity, and give the code."
One of them clenched his fist and tapped the table, signaling to the grandmother to prove her identity.
When she arrived at Ruan Xianxian's place, she had a pass but didn't know any password. She didn't see the password that Yan Fenghua had written on the paper.
Grandma explained: "The newcomer."
However, the four people did not let their guard down. One of them made a phone call to someone, gave his identity information, and hung up after a few "uh-huhs". He then nodded to the others.
He handed the code written by his grandmother to Ruan Xianxian, saying, "Remember this, it's today's code. Pick up tomorrow's code when you leave work."
To enter the second floor, you must present yourself, your pass, and the password; all three are required.
Ruan Xianxian seemed to understand, but not quite. Wasn't she already on the second floor?
"Is there anything else you don't understand?" the middle-aged man asked.
Ruan Xianxian: "For example, what if I come back from a mission and don't know the code for the day?"
Middle-aged man: "The tasks are all coded. You just need to memorize them, and someone will check them."
Okay, this isn't a place to rely on personal connections. Maybe we can get to know each other better later? It doesn't matter.
She then asked, "If I take leave..." Meeting four sharp gazes, she changed the subject.
"I mean, if I have something to do and don't come to work on a given day, what happens the next day?"
The middle-aged man, who rarely heard such a bizarre question, thought for a moment and said, "Write a report explaining the reason for the leave, and someone will verify it."
Okay! Now I finally know where that stack of reports in the white van came from!
Once he confirmed that she was alright for the time being, the middle-aged man stood up, pushed aside an inconspicuous cabinet in the room, revealing the steps leading up behind it.
Ruan Xianxian suddenly realized that the so-called second floor was not under her feet, but another space.
The grandmother and granddaughter walked a few steps, one in front of the other. Ruan Xianxian, who had a strong sense of spatial orientation, felt something was off and looked for an accurate adjective.
"Grandma! I think we're going downstairs."
Yan Fenghua looked at the upward steps beneath her feet, completely baffled.
Seeing that her grandmother didn't know either, Ruan Xianxian, perhaps feeling wrong, stopped talking.
The staircase was quite long. As she rounded a corner, she was about to count how many steps there were when she heard Yan Fenghua's voice from above.
"No counting steps allowed."
Ruan Xianxian laughed, "Grandma, I've noticed that you've become more superstitious ever since you came to Institute 507."
There is a saying among the people that one should not count the steps or the grave mounds.
As you count, an extra section appears, and you no longer know where the road leads.
Yan Fenghua stopped in her tracks, turned around, and said seriously, "It's not superstition, it's a new regulation after the relocation."
The staircase was indeed strange, Ruan Xianxian thought to herself.
A familiar figure was waiting at the end of the steps with a smile on his face. "You've arrived?"
Ruan Xianxian was delighted and quickly walked to the old man's side, "Old Zhao."
The old man was not tall, with a black and white goatee. Who else could he be but Zhao Li, Gong Ye's master?
"Why did you have to go to all this trouble to come out and pick me up?"
"Of course, come on, someone wants to see you in person to thank you. They've been staying here for months, eating and drinking for free."
Zhao Ligang was about to turn around when he saw Yan Fenghua behind him and nodded slightly.
"Xiao Yan, your project was suspended before the Lunar New Year. After the Lunar New Year, the higher-ups launched a new research project to scientifically prove the existence of 'past and present lives'."
You've come at the perfect time. I don't need to ask anyone else to notify you. Just go and report for duty and join the new research project.
"Leave her to me, I'll take her inside."
Grandma's eyes lit up, and she didn't even notice her granddaughter, wishing she could turn around and leave immediately.
Ruan Xianxian could hardly believe what she was hearing. Using science to verify past and present lives? Using science to verify metaphysics?
So those professors downstairs who've been copying down their papers in their respective fields are researching this stuff?
However... the existence of a project is justified.
She swallowed hard, her throat dry. "May I ask what projects were halted?"
There's nothing wrong with saying this; Zhao Li summed it up in two words: "Catching ghosts."
"Catching ghosts?" Ruan Xianxian raised an eyebrow.
"Using scientific methods to capture the existence of the soul," Yan Fenghua explained.
"Then why was it stopped? Wasn't it a very interesting study?"
The two elders looked at each other, and Yan Fenghua sighed, "Building a central detector that goes thousands of meters underground would be extremely costly, and the bureau doesn't have enough funds."
The project can only be halted and shelved.
Wait a minute, the more Ruan Xianxian listened, the more familiar it sounded. Wasn't this the successful neutrino capture decades later?
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