Ch 52: Those who wronged me are now begging me for mercy

New R-Level Item

“……”

The entire class group chat fell silent for three seconds, then erupted into laughter.

“Hahahahaha, Rong, where did you get that meme? I’m going to die laughing and let someone else take over my credit card debt.”

“I can’t take it either; I just sprayed my screen with a mouthful of sour and spicy noodles.”

Someone else was even more direct—they right-clicked on Rong Ziyin’s meme, copied, pasted, and sent it again.

Soon, the class group chat became a joyous sea of meme battles.

The furious rich young master, filled with 4000 rage points, smashed his phone in anger. But just as he was about to continue cursing, his phone received a text message.

It was from his influential mentor, stating that he would be providing technical support to a research team for the next two months. The lab experiments would continue as scheduled, and everyone was expected to work hard.

It was clearly a mass message, but it felt like a bucket of ice water poured over him on a hot summer day, instantly cooling down the rich young master.

The mentor’s departure was bad news for him; it was even the biggest crisis he could face.

This influential mentor had high standards—if a student following him didn’t produce results within six months, they could pack up and leave.

Of course, some genuinely couldn’t make progress, but they were accepted into the lab based on true talent. They might have been short on luck or lacking in a bit of skill, but as long as they were diligent, the mentor was willing to keep them around.

But he was different. He had neither talent nor diligence. Now that the mentor was leaving, he wouldn’t even have anyone to ask for help. The senior students surely wouldn’t be willing to help him.

Collapse value: 5000.

The rich young master suddenly felt darkness closing in around him.

Rong Ziyin was a bit surprised to receive a system prompt, but he quickly calmed down.

Rong Ziyin: It seems the little fat lamb is still a little fat lamb. After raising it for a while, there’s always more wool to be sheared.

The system cut to the chase: But you’ve already sheared it bald.

Rong Ziyin: No worries, it’ll grow back sooner or later.

Clearly, he had a mindset that favored long-term gain over immediate profit. The system silently lit a candle for the rich young master, thinking that being Rong Ziyin’s arch-enemy was truly pitiable.

The night passed without further incident. The next morning, Rong Ziyin woke up and headed straight to the veterinary department’s laboratory.

They had made some progress in their separation experiment yesterday. Since it was late, and no one could stay there indefinitely without rest, several senior students suggested taking shifts. Rong Ziyin returned early, so he was on the morning shift today.

The seniors had stayed up all night. As Rong Ziyin passed by the cafeteria, he bought breakfast for them before heading to the lab.

As soon as he entered the experimental building, Rong Ziyin sensed that the atmosphere was a bit off.

From a distance, he saw a chubby guy being escorted upstairs like a VIP, accompanied by the department head.

Rong Ziyin’s mentor was also present, seemingly showing great respect to this person. However, Rong Ziyin was far away and didn’t feel like getting closer.

Soon, he carried the food to the lab.

The people in the lab had been up all night; they were already exhausted, hungry, and on the verge of collapsing.

When they saw Rong Ziyin, they immediately rushed over and quickly divided the breakfast he brought.

While eating, they briefed Rong Ziyin on the experiment’s progress. After that, they all staggered back to their dorms, looking like they might pass out at any moment.

The system couldn’t help but ask Rong Ziyin, “Are researchers always this tired?”

While organizing the observation records from the previous night, Rong Ziyin replied, “Yes. Continuous experiments are very draining. When I was a sophomore and just joined the research group, the experiment I was working on required continuous observation for six months.”

“Oh my god! How did you not go crazy?”

“So, things are actually pretty good right now,” Rong Ziyin couldn’t help but laugh. “At least we’re on the right track. Just think, what if we spent six months on observations only to find out that the direction was wrong? All that effort would be wasted!”

System: “That would drive anyone insane.”

“You can’t afford to go insane,” Rong Ziyin sighed. “Every minute in the lab is burning money. Whether it’s government funding or from collaborative partners, none of it can be wasted.”

“The longer the research takes, the more money gets burned. With so many resources spent, if we still can’t produce results, the loss isn’t just on one person. So, who has time to go crazy? You have to immediately figure out what went wrong and then continue moving forward with determination.”

So, is this how Rong Ziyin has carried the heavy burden all this time, never regretting the past or questioning the future, and ultimately persevering until now?

The system suddenly felt a deep respect for researchers like Rong Ziyin.

However, at this moment, Rong Ziyin was already immersed in his experiment and no longer continued speaking with it.

The person coming to relieve him arrived at 4 PM. Rong Ziyin still had to check on the geese in the garden.

Recently, the geese, having just passed through adolescence, had matured quite a bit but were now facing even more troublesome issues—they were ready to mate.

Particularly the female geese, who had actually started laying eggs and were nesting with the ganders.

Ordinarily, ganders wouldn’t help with nesting, but perhaps due to some influence from the natural order, these geese were extremely loyal to their partners, like swans. The male geese would also help the females incubate the eggs.

Rong Ziyin found this strange ecology quite interesting, though he didn’t rule out the possibility that these little actors were simply imitating the swans nearby.

After all, they looked quite similar, and it wasn’t impossible that they mistakenly thought of each other as the same species or close relatives.

Many others shared Rong Ziyin’s thoughts and were also observing. For example, the head of the veterinary department found it so intriguing that he even equipped the lead goose with a miniature camera to observe the geese’s activities at all times, hoping to analyze the reasons behind this ecological change.

Just last month, the department head wrote an interesting paper based on the specific circumstances of the geese and published it in the monthly journal, sparking curiosity among many veterinary students.

As a result, more students had recently started observing the geese. The department head’s exclusive footage had become something everyone wanted to see, which unexpectedly improved the previously distant relationship between the students and teachers in the veterinary department.

Even without the department head saying anything, Rong Ziyin could tell that he was very much in favor of continuing to raise the geese in the garden.

He even vaguely heard hints about expanding the number of geese.

However, Rong Ziyin considered that any increase might disrupt and damage the campus ecosystem, so he hadn’t agreed to it yet.

Standing at the entrance to the garden, Rong Ziyin heard the geese calling from inside. The urgency in their voices sounded like they were resisting something or arguing with someone.

Rong Ziyin quickly strode inside and unexpectedly found the department head and the chubby middle-aged man he had seen earlier at the staircase standing in front of the geese’s nest. It looked like they were about to inspect the eggs the geese had laid.

But Rong Ziyin’s geese were true aesthetes and had spent a lot of time around people. They had heard a term called prenatal education and were deeply convinced that if the unborn goslings inside the eggs saw these two greasy middle-aged men, they might hatch bald, which was a terrifying thought.

So, to prevent this disaster, they resorted to force and were really aggressive.

However, as soon as they saw Rong Ziyin, the fierce geese immediately turned into pitiful little things, squinting their tear-filled eyes and whining as they complained to Rong Ziyin.

“These two bad men are trying to turn our eggs into ugly ducklings. We’ve worked so hard to protect our babies; we really deserve some kisses from our handsome dad.”

While saying this, they surrounded Rong Ziyin with little hearts of love. The funniest part was the eggs themselves.

Even though they hadn’t hatched yet and couldn’t send any messages, they somehow knew to send little hearts to Rong Ziyin from inside the eggs.

It was too much, so Rong Ziyin couldn’t help but pat each of them.

When he snapped out of it, he found that the chubby man had somehow sidled up to him, watching him with great interest.

“Hello, how are you?” Rong Ziyin took the initiative to greet him.

“Hmm, I’m fine,” the chubby man replied unexpectedly, in a rather blunt manner.

If it had been anyone else, they might not have known how to respond.

But this was Rong Ziyin.

He looked the chubby man up and down, and suddenly, his long-dormant shock skill activated again. Rong Ziyin clearly saw several dark spots on the man.

High blood pressure, high cholesterol, and fatty liver—classic middle-aged symptoms.

So, Rong Ziyin offered a sincere suggestion, “You’re actually not that fine. You should find a nutritionist to help you lose weight when you have time.”

After saying that, Rong Ziyin comforted the geese again and then planned to return to his dorm.

Confusion value: 1000. The chubby man stood at the garden gate, staring at Rong Ziyin’s back in a daze for a long time.

After a while, he suddenly became excited and patted the department head on the shoulder, saying, “Interesting, your student Rong is indeed a very interesting person!”

The department head remained expressionless, thinking how unpredictable big shots were. That morning, a whole group of people had tried to impress him, but none had caught his eye. Rong Ziyin just told him to go to the hospital, and now he was in a good mood.

All he could say was that all straight men really were the same!

But this might actually be a good thing. The department head had previously discussed it with Rong Ziyin’s mentor. With Rong Ziyin’s talent, staying at this agricultural university might not be the best for him.

Although the resources here were decent, they were still lacking compared to those at the National Agricultural Research Institute. After all, that was the so-called “national team,” and even if it was a bit tougher, the future prospects would be much better.

And the man next to him was said to be the most likely successor of the “national team.”

He had come to help out with a friend. If he was willing to take Rong Ziyin under his wing, the department head and Rong Ziyin’s mentor would be relieved of their biggest worry.

But this man’s personality was truly unpredictable, so the department head couldn’t be sure what he thought of Rong Ziyin.

Meanwhile, Rong Ziyin had already returned to his dorm.

After a simple dinner, Rong Ziyin began to check the orders he had received recently.

Even though he hadn’t actively sought out new clients, the repeat business he currently had was enough to get by.

After packaging and shipping all the orders, Rong Ziyin suddenly realized that his stock of salted duck eggs had completely run out.

System: Well, yeah! After all, it’s been a while since you last did a lottery.

Rong Ziyin looked at his abundant points: Should I give it a try?

For once, the system was feeling generous: Go for it! Do a 300-draw streak!

Without hesitation, Rong Ziyin started the lottery.

The wheel spun rapidly—salted duck eggs x10, salted duck eggs x10, salted duck eggs x10, dried fish x10, goose egg x1…

The familiar scene played out again, something even the system had grown used to.

Rong Ziyin picked up his large basket where he stored the salted duck eggs and began organizing.

At that moment, a unique item suddenly appeared in his storage basket. It was bronze-colored, exuding an ancient and mysterious aura. The key point was that it emitted a faint blue glow—it was an R-level item.

System: It actually dropped something?

Following that comment, over twenty identical items appeared in a row.

The last one, due to lack of storage space, appeared directly in Rong Ziyin’s hand.

System: What the heck, what the heck! What the hell is this?

Rong Ziyin carefully examined it and, with a somewhat subtle tone, said, “It seems to be a suona.”

🍉🫐🍇🍒🥝