Chapter 85: Asian Genes

“Didn’t you say you needed my help to test something?” Ye Qiu took the suitcase out of the car. The villa had already been cleaned, and on the surface, nothing seemed to have changed from before.

“Master, the elevator is broken and needs to be reset from inside,” Yun Yan said, unlocking the wall’s code panel. Though the door appeared, the elevator did not come up. She peered down—it was pitch dark, impossible to see anything below.

“Ye Qiu, what is this place? What exactly do you want me to do?” Lin Wan’er was truly frightened now.

An unfinished building on the outskirts, yet inside it stood a fully furnished villa. Even more surprising was that within, there was an additional secret. It was hard not to let the imagination run wild.

Lin Wan’er quietly tapped a silver needle and hid it in her hand. At the slightest sign of trouble, she was ready to fling it without hesitation. If one looked closely, the needle glimmered with a cold, faint blue light.

“You’ll know in a moment.” Ye Qiu gave a perfunctory reply and asked Yun Yan to analyze how to restart the lab’s elevator.

Very soon, after comparing the elevator model with previously collected data, Yun Yan told Ye Qiu how to reset it.

In about ten minutes, the elevator slowly ascended. Lin Wan’er stared in disbelief at everything before her.

It was truly astonishing.

“Ye Qiu, where did you find a place like this?”

“This isn’t mine,” Ye Qiu replied as he pressed the button for the third floor.

Though Yun Yan had removed most of the toxic gas from the fourth basement level, some remained sealed inside. Ye Qiu dared not open that floor recklessly. Fortunately, the third level was designed for experiments.

Ding.

The elevator stopped at the third basement level.

Even though Ye Qiu had prepared himself, the scene before him still shocked him.

The third basement, several hundred square meters, was divided into several labs, each over a hundred square meters, all constructed from transparent, special glass.

As Ye Qiu powered up the floor, the computers in all the labs flickered to life.

“Ye Qiu, is this your doing?” Lin Wan’er walked around the labs, noticing each one was numbered. Some contained locked medicines, others refrigerated reagents.

One lab had little equipment, but was splattered with fresh blood—more like a dissecting room.

“I’ve only just returned to the country; how could I have set this up?” Ye Qiu opened a lab door and set the suitcase on the table.

Thankfully, the case had an electronic lock.

Any technology was defenseless before Yun Yan’s powerful autonomous intelligence.

Soon, Yun Yan cracked the case’s code.

Inside were four vials of green reagent.

As soon as it was opened, a chill escaped, showing the case had been kept at an extremely low temperature.

“So what’s this about?”

“This thing might be a matter of national security for Huaxia, so I brought it to you to analyze first.”

With that, Ye Qiu brought up Yun Yan’s projection.

“Yun Yan, guide Miss Lin through testing the reagent.”

“Yes, Master.”

“Master, my foot,” Lin Wan’er complained.

She had just arrived at the plastic surgery hospital when Ye Qiu dragged her here, already confused, and now he wanted her to test something that looked highly dangerous. She was annoyed.

Never mind whether this thing was dangerous; Ye Qiu’s attitude alone was enough to make her unhappy.

Who asks for a favor like this?

“Did you ask if I’m willing to help? Did you ask whether I even know how?”

“You don’t? You should’ve said so.”

“What do you mean, I should’ve said so? I’ve told you already—I’m a Chinese medicine doctor.”

“And Chinese medicine doctors aren’t doctors?”

“Chinese medicine relies on observation, listening, questioning, and pulse-taking—these are just auxiliary means, alright?” Lin Wan’er said irritably. “Besides, I’m a doctor, not a researcher. It’s like working in a hospital—nurses can give injections, but doctors might not. Do you get that?”

“No,” Ye Qiu shook his head, “so you’re saying you can’t do it.”

Lin Wan’er fumed inside—was this how you ask for help?

“It’s not a question of can or can’t, it’s about specialization—don’t you get that?”

“Just say whether you can or not.”

“I can’t.” Lin Wan’er snorted. Even if she could, she wouldn’t help with that attitude.

“If you can’t, you can’t. What a useless doctor—and to think you’re the last disciple of the legendary Master Xuanyuan. Hmph, maybe I should ask my second sister—she seems more suited to be a senior.”

“What did you just say? You’re testing my temper.” Lin Wan’er blocked Ye Qiu. “It’s just a test, right? Even if I haven’t done it, I’ve seen it done. Besides, isn’t Yun Yan here to help?”

She knew exactly why Xiao Yuru had improved so quickly in such a short time.

Hmm?

Thinking about Xiao Yuru’s rapid progress, Lin Wan’er crossed her arms and looked at Ye Qiu with a haughty air. “I could help you, but I—”

“That’s not happening.” Ye Qiu cut her off, knowing exactly what she wanted.

“Pick another request.”

“Stingy,” Lin Wan’er muttered, no longer making things difficult for Ye Qiu. She pouted, “Then you owe me a favor.”

“Alright,” Ye Qiu nodded. Lin Wan’er’s sudden reasonableness made him feel a bit embarrassed.

After thinking it over, he explained, “It’s not that I’m stingy. The AI codes for Willow Leaf and Lady Eleven were prepared a long time ago. Do you think AI is like cheap cabbage, available on demand? Besides, autonomous intelligence has strict requirements for hardware and code. Without extensive calculation and training, aren’t you afraid AI would start treating humans as just data? You know, computers have no emotional basis for data.”

“Enough, I get it. You’re so long-winded,” Lin Wan’er said, knowing he was right. If it were that easy, AI would already be everywhere, not just the few that existed.

“Yun Yan, let’s work together on this.”

“No problem.”

And so, the woman and the AI began testing the reagent.

At first, Lin Wan’er’s expression was calm, but gradually she grew more and more serious.

After about half an hour, Lin Wan’er’s forehead was covered in cold sweat, and her hands trembled as she held the test tube.

“What’s wrong?” Ye Qiu noticed that Lin Wan’er’s expression was off, especially since her cheeks, usually rosy, had turned pale.

“Ye Qiu, tell me the truth. Where did you get these things?” Lin Wan’er’s face was grave.

Ye Qiu didn’t want to lie and, after a moment’s hesitation, said, “Someone smuggled these in for research. I intercepted them.”

Lin Wan’er stared at Ye Qiu for a long while before speaking seriously, “Ye Qiu, these are genetic sequence codes for Asians.”