Chapter 297 - 296: Get Out

Pei Yin thought for a moment. "There are only so many nobles. It’s easy to check for anyone A Rank or higher, even if it was some time ago."

Gu Qi looked about the same age as Ji Shiyin, probably seventeen or eighteen.

That age...

Pei Yin’s gaze darkened. "It might have something to do with the Awakening Identification Institute."

Jian Yu lowered her lashes, thinking.

The largest Awakening Identification Institute is in the Imperial City.

Over the years, she’d heard they had opened many branches. Even a planet like Digital Star, which had few nobles, had a small-scale identification institute.

The Director had even taken Jian Yu there when she was a child, but since she didn’t pass the preliminary screening, she wasn’t allowed in for further identification.

’Come to think of it, those few nobles who moved to Mathematics Star seem to have gradually faded from the public eye after this institute opened.’

Pei Yin walked over. "Stop thinking about it. Duan Feiye has already gone to investigate."

He brought up a new laboratory, one that was a one-hundred-percent perfect replica of the ones for the hatching specialization.

Pei Yin transferred the controller to Jian Yu’s hand. His domineering move was like that of an overbearing student council president from a Mary Sue novel; all that was missing was a wicked smirk.

His expression was a little awkward as he said, "The hatching course assigned some homework while you were at Ultimate Eye. I went ahead and did it for you. Since you have time now, you can follow my steps and do it again to get familiar. There might be a pop quiz in class."

Jian Yu stared blankly.

’There was homework?’

’I’d almost forgotten I was a student.’

Jian Yu’s eyes curved into crescents. She started sweet-talking him. "Where could I ever find such a good boyfriend!"

The corners of Pei Yin’s mouth lifted. "It was nothing. I’m going to take a shower."

His face was beet red. He quickly entered the changing room, grabbed his clothes, and ducked into the shower room to wash up and change.

Jian Yu didn’t want to fail the class, so she had no choice but to obediently get to work on the practical exercise.

The key concepts from her hatching course surfaced in her mind. She went from clumsy to proficient, getting the hang of it fairly quickly.

Pei Yin burst out, stirring up a gust of wind.

He was strong. The moment he came out, he wrapped an arm tightly around Jian Yu’s waist and, before she could react, lifted her into his arms with one hand.

Pei Yin buried his face in the crook of Jian Yu’s neck. "Can you come with me to the base’s research institute?"

Seeing that Jian Yu didn’t say anything, he quickly added, "We’ll be back soon. Ayan and the others will be asleep until evening, so it won’t interfere..."

Jian Yu rubbed the back of his head and teased him, "You don’t have to be like this. I still prefer your old, arrogant self."

Pei Yin: "..."

"SCREEE!" Ting Ying cried out, circling in mid-air as if mocking him.

「The Research Institute.」

Pei Yin didn’t go straight in.

He pulled Jian Yu around a corner and used his clearance to enter the top floor.

They were fast. They got in with 1.5 seconds to spare before the door closed.

Jian Yu asked with a deadpan expression, "If you have access, why sneak in?"

Pei Yin, who had been in the middle of opening a file box, suddenly froze. "The Director is afraid I’ll start researching random things. He won’t let me come in here alone and rummage around."

He’d been in here seven times, and every time, Pei Yin would fixate on a failed project.

Once he felt there was a chance of success, he would pester them to apply to restart the experiment.

He did succeed, but six out of the seven times, the resources consumed were disproportionate to the rewards. The Director had a love-hate relationship with him.

On a later occasion, the Director nearly revoked his access.

Pei Yin opened the file box for C69 and pulled out a thick stack of white paper, as thick as a book.

He explained in a low voice, "Because of cybersecurity issues, many important experiments don’t keep digital data. The C69 experiment only has paper documents. The electronic versions were all destroyed after the second time the experiment was halted."

That’s because the institute’s network had been breached by an external IP twice.

Jian Yu flipped through the pages. "What are we looking for?"

Pei Yin said as he looked, "We’re looking for a date and whether the C69 experiment has an alias. The file the Director gave me says the C69 experiment started seven or eight years ago, but I suspect this experiment existed long before I was born."

Jian Yu understood.

She casually picked up the files on top and only looked at the ones at the very bottom.

Pei Yin was over there, slowly sorting through the pile, when he suddenly saw the mountain of white paper shrink by more than half: ???

His eyes widened in a daze. "The dates are out of order."

Just because it’s at the bottom doesn’t mean it’s the oldest.

Jian Yu: "..."

She casually picked up a stack of paper, her face not flushing and her heart not pounding, and said stubbornly, "I know."

Before Pei Yin could recover from her self-righteous tone, he witnessed something even more bizarre.

Jian Yu flipped to the second page of the stack she had picked up, and her expression turned subtle as she paused.

In just a few seconds, she pulled out a data card for a change in alias for the C69 experiment.

Pei Yin: "..."

He strode over, taking two or three steps at a time, and quickly reached Jian Yu’s side.

Pei Yin took the data card, his pupils shrinking slightly. He said dryly, "Babe, you’re really lucky."

Words failed him, but his eyes didn’t slow down at all. "In other words, the C69 experiment first began twenty years ago, and was originally named: X."

After taking photos and a video, Pei Yin returned everything to its original place.

His dark eyes glinted. He looked around the vast space, frowning deeply. "I don’t remember any experimental project called X."

Pei Yin had never heard of it, nor had he ever heard the Director mention it to anyone.

The sound of people talking came from outside the door.

A man and a woman.

"How could you be so careless? Didn’t you say you took everything? Why was a data card left behind?"

"I didn’t mean to! The person before me messed up. I only realized a data card was missing when I was reorganizing today. Stop scolding me. So many people died on that project back then; no one’s going to go looking through its files on purpose. I’ll just re-register it later."

"Hmph, you say that, but what about that guy Pei Yin? Is he not a person?"

Pei Yin, his face sour: "..."

The footsteps grew closer, and Jian Yu instinctively wanted to hide.

Pei Yin wrapped an arm around her waist and raised his other hand, catching a report that Ting Ying had randomly pulled for him.

A failed experimental project.

The door opened, and he lifted his eyelids in a half-smile.

The two people outside the door: "!!!"

The man in white was tense. "Academician Pei."

The woman in white was pale.

Pei Yin narrowed his eyes, a flicker of recognition in them. "You are...?"

The man in white said cautiously, "She’s the Director’s lab assistant. The person in charge of organizing the archive room recently resigned, so the Director temporarily transferred her here to sort things out. We forgot a piece of data during the day and came back to get it."

The Director was Pei Yin’s teacher.

Pei Yin was the Director’s hand-picked student, his officially certified, one-and-only disciple.

Although Pei Yin had a bad temper, as long as the Director was mentioned, he usually wouldn’t make things difficult for people on purpose.

"Who’s in there!?"

The Director’s deep voice came from outside the door, along with the sound of overlapping footsteps, sometimes near, sometimes far.

The people parted.

The Director frowned. "Why are you here again? Didn’t I tell you not to come in whenever you please?"

He scowled, reciting his catchphrase, "Next time you come in without filing an application with me, I’m revoking your access!"

The Director’s gaze fell on Jian Yu, his expression puzzled. "And this is...?"

Pei Yin jiggled his leg, his handsome face full of an arrogance that could pierce the heavens. "Teacher, I want to do this experiment. File the application for me!"

He casually handed over the report in his hand as a cover.

The Director read it carefully, only to find that it was a project that couldn’t have failed more spectacularly—and one that he had personally led.

He looked up, then back at Pei Yin’s devil-may-care attitude. This kid was outright humiliating him!

The Director completely blew his top. "Get out!"

Pei Yin’s scalp tingled. He scooped up Jian Yu and quickly scrammed.