Chapter 37: All-Around Genius

Chapter 37: Chapter 37: All-Around Genius

The next morning.

The sky was just beginning to brighten at the crack of dawn.

Gu Qing’s eyes snapped open right on time. He habitually reached for his phone and sent a WeChat message to his junior, asking her to come out for martial arts practice.

It was almost eight o’clock when his junior finally woke up and replied to his WeChat message.

[Xia Shuran: Senior, how about we take a day off today? We went too hard yesterday. My whole body is sore and aching right now. It’s an effort to even lift my arms. I really can’t train.]

A few seconds later, she added a pitiful little emoji. You could feel her exhaustion even through the screen.

Gu Qing replied: [Alright, then get some good rest today. We’ll pick it up again tomorrow.]

[Xia Shuran: Senior, you’re so nice and understanding.]

[Gu Qing: Hey now, don’t just hand out the "nice guy" card like that.]

[Xia Shuran: In that case, Senior, you’re really handsome!]

[Gu Qing: Well, if you know what to say, don’t stop now.]

[Xia Shuran: Senior, you’re ridiculously handsome! Insanely handsome! The number one most handsome guy at Hai University!]

[Gu Qing: People as honest as you are rare these days. Go on, a couple more.]

After chatting with his junior for a while, Gu Qing felt completely refreshed and invigorated.

’Goes to show, it’s not just women who appreciate emotional validation. Men like it too,’ he thought.

’After all, who doesn’t enjoy being praised?’

However, demanding emotional validation from others while giving nothing in return made you a total scumbag.

A few minutes later, Gu Qing made an excuse about being busy and ended the chat with Xia Shuran.

The moment he closed the WeChat chat window, a wave of worry washed over him.

’When I first woke up, I was planning on training with Shuran all day today. I wanted to try and grind out that powerhouse Muscle Knots Attribute by Monday.’

’After all, it was Sunday morning, and my Physical Strength Attribute had already accumulated an increase of 81 points.’

’Two days should have been more than enough time to grind out the remaining 19 points.’

’But who would have thought that my junior, a PE student who was usually so tough, would be the one to tap out?’

It had completely caught him off guard.

"Oh well, it’s not like I’m in a rush," Gu Qing said to himself. His mindset was positive. "Getting it by Wednesday or Thursday will be just the same."

...

At nine in the morning, Gu Qing wandered around campus, searching for any sign of the rats.

Although the security captain had warned him last night not to get involved in the rat cases, he went his own way and didn’t give up his investigation.

He believed that true self-preservation meant proactively understanding your enemy, not burying your head in the sand like an ostrich.

’There’s a criminal hiding on campus right now, and they’re most likely an Extraordinary criminal.’

’As a member of this school, I have to understand everything so I can get a handle on the situation.’

’Only by knowing my enemy and myself, by understanding the situation I’m in, can I better protect myself later on.’

’When you’re already Extraordinary, proactively learning about other Extraordinaries is the real path to self-preservation.’

’But choosing to stay away from the Extraordinary world, remaining completely in the dark... if another Extraordinary came knocking, I’d be a sitting duck.’

Gu Qing was in the middle of his rat search.

Suddenly, the phone in his pocket started vibrating like crazy.

He pulled it out to look.

It was the "Biochemical Madman," Zhou Yuan, sending him messages on WeChat.

[Junior, you up yet?]

[I’ve already found a new place to rent and moved my stuff over.]

[The thing is, I’ve got a lot of lab equipment, and it’s too expensive to have the Huolala driver help move it upstairs. I’m a little hesitant to spend the money.]

[If you’re free, could you come over and help me move it?]

[With the moving fee we save, I’ll treat you to a nice lunch.]

He quickly scanned the messages.

Gu Qing replied: [Brother Yuan, send me the location. I’ll head over right now.]

...

In the urban village next to the university, Gu Qing followed the navigation in a circle but, for the life of him, couldn’t find the residential building Zhou Yuan had mentioned.

He had no choice. He had to give Zhou Yuan a voice call to confirm.

"Brother Yuan, did you give me the wrong address? I can’t seem to find the building you’re talking about."

"The address is right. What map app are you using?"

"Dide Maps."

"No wonder you can’t find it. Dide Maps might as well be called ’Defective Maps.’ It’s notoriously bad, always messing up the navigation. Switch to Qiandu Maps and you’ll find it."

"Okay, I’ll give it a try."

After hanging up, Gu Qing grudgingly used his mobile data to download Qiandu Maps and start the navigation again.

Following Qiandu Maps’ directions, it didn’t take long at all. Gu Qing found the building Zhou Yuan had mentioned.

’Damn it. That trash Defective Maps. Uninstall!’

’Qiandu Maps, launch!’

Just as he finished uninstalling Dide Maps, he saw a sweat-drenched Zhou Yuan coming downstairs.

The moment he saw Gu Qing, Zhou Yuan’s eyes lit up as if he’d just seen his savior.

"Junior, you’re finally here!"

"Quick, quick, help me move all this lab equipment upstairs."

"The sooner we finish moving, the sooner we can go grab a bite."

As he spoke, Zhou Yuan had already picked up a large box of test tubes and was carefully turning to head up the stairs.

Seeing this, Gu Qing didn’t waste any time and immediately started helping.

His physical fitness was excellent; he could carry in one trip what took Zhou Yuan three.

With his help, everything was moved upstairs in just over ten minutes.

After that, they spent another half-hour arranging everything and cleaning up. The move was officially complete.

By then, it was already past eleven in the morning.

The two of them went downstairs to eat.

About an hour later, they returned to the rental apartment, full and satisfied.

"I’m getting a little sleepy after that big meal." Zhou Yuan yawned. "Junior, do you want to take a nap here too, or what’s the plan?"

Gu Qing suggested, "Brother Yuan, how about we skip the nap and do some research together?"

The whole reason he’d gotten close to Zhou Yuan was to do research with him and grind Attributes from his "Biochemical Madman" tag.

’Naps are a waste of time, a waste of life,’ he thought.

Zhou Yuan was surprised. "Sure, Junior! I didn’t think you were actually this interested in research. I thought you were just in it for the novelty."

With that, he fetched two lab coats, handed one to Gu Qing, and said, "Come on, suit up! Let’s get to it!"

Gu Qing took the lab coat, put it on, and got straight to work.

Weighing reagents.

Mixing solutions.

Filtering out impurities.

Gu Qing’s every move was skilled and steady.

Zhou Yuan, watching from the side, was stunned.

"Junior, how did your technique get so proficient? Last night, I swear you were a complete novice."

Zhou Yuan couldn’t figure it out.

Gu Qing smiled. "Well, this is my second time doing it. With the experience from last night, it’s normal to be a little more skilled."

"But you’re way too skilled for that!" Zhou Yuan started to question his life. "Becoming this proficient after doing it just once... compared to you, I feel like I’m disabled."

He couldn’t help but say with a hint of regret, "You’re a natural-born genius for research. You never should have picked a foreign language major. What a waste of talent."

Those words sounded very familiar to Gu Qing.

Xia Shuran had said something similar before—that he had the body of a natural-born athlete and that it was a shame he wasn’t pursuing sports.

But...

’Is it really a shame?’ he wondered.

The answer, of course, was that it wasn’t a shame at all.

’Because I’m an all-around genius.’

’As long as I have enough time to grind more Attributes from different tags, I’m destined to become omnipotent.’

...

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