During the semester, Tang Mo often went to Professor Tian's lab to help out, doing research alongside many of his graduate students.
This time, however, she had returned to school to attend a summer camp, which was unrelated to Professor Tian, so she hadn't been back to the lab.
Professor Tian was a top expert in biological sciences. After the famine began, his research focused mainly on soil. Six months later, he started studying mutant beasts and plants.
If Tang Mo remembered correctly, Professor Tian would later become a Five-star protected figure in the Alliance for developing an Energy Bar made primarily from Exotic Beast Meat, which solved the widespread famine.
In her past life, Tang Mo had also received an invitation from Professor Tian. But back then, she was only able to survive at the university thanks to his help, so she assumed he was just taking pity on her.
Although she was very interested in the research, her pride had made her refuse.
"Okay, I'll be at the lab on time tomorrow." Tang Mo said with a radiant smile.
Professor Tian was a man of great scientific accomplishment. His research spanned the entire apocalypse and brought invaluable assets to humanity.
Even just to participate and learn a little something would be a tremendous honor for Tang Mo. Of course she wanted to join.
After setting a time with the professor, she arrived at the lab punctually the next morning.
Professor Tian's lab was the best-equipped at T University. Besides Professor Tian himself, there were six students. Including Tang Mo, who arrived today, that made a total of seven.
Four were male graduate students under Professor Tian. The other two girls, besides Tang Mo, were undergraduates from the Biological Science College.
She glanced around the room. She didn't recognize the guys, but she knew both of the girls.
One was her roommate, Song Qing. As the student with the second-highest GPA in their entire college, Tang Mo wasn't surprised to see her here.
The other was Wenqing, a girl who would one day become a famous "goddess-level" figure at the university.
Objectively speaking, Wenqing's looks were a six out of ten at best. She couldn't even compare to the habitually plain Song Qing, let alone the exquisitely featured Tang Mo.
Her path to fame was simple: she was a Space Ability User.
Of course, an ability to only store items wasn't considered anything special at the university right now.
The most important part was that Wenqing's Space contained a farm and a small stream, which could produce food and water.
In this current situation, where everyone was just waiting to die, what could possibly be more precious than those two things?
But now that Tang Mo had her own Jade Pendant Space, she couldn't help but suspect that Wenqing might not have a Space Ability at all. Perhaps, like herself, Wenqing possessed a spatial treasure.
At least, in all the years that followed in her past life, she had never heard of a Space Ability User whose Space could be used for farming.
"This is Tang Mo. Starting today, she'll be conducting experiments with all of you," Professor Tian announced.
"Hello, everyone. I look forward to working with you all," Tang Mo said with a humble, beaming smile.
Song Qing froze for a moment when she saw Tang Mo, then nodded in relief.
'In her eyes, Tang Mo had been too listless, just lying in bed all day with her curtain drawn. It's so good that she's finally joined the lab.'
Song Qing worried over Tang Mo like a mother hen.
When the guys in the lab saw that a beautiful new girl had joined them, they all got pretty excited.
Tang Mo was simply dressed in a tracksuit and carrying a backpack, her short hair neat and tidy, but clothes couldn't hide true beauty.
"Hey, I'm Hu Qi." The tallest and most fashionably dressed of the grad students was the first to greet her.
He had a playful grin and a seemingly easygoing personality. From the logos covering his clothes, Tang Mo could tell he was definitely a rich kid.
"Zhao Tianyi." "Zhao Tianci." The next to introduce themselves were a pair of twins. Both were chubby and looked rather comical.
"Hello… I'm Li Guodong." The last to introduce himself was a plainly dressed young man. He sounded a little awkward, as if he didn't talk to girls very often.
Tang Mo nodded and returned their greetings one by one.
Wenqing's attitude, however, was cold. She stated her name curtly and turned away.
'She had thought she was the prettiest girl in the lab, and all the senior guys took special care of her.'
'Now Tang Mo was here, and seeing how eager the guys were to please her, she felt a pang of resentment.'
'What's the use of being pretty? You'll still have to starve like the rest of us. Let's see if you're still smiling in a couple of days.'
Wenqing touched the bracelet on her wrist. 'If it weren't for the fact that now isn't the best time to reveal my secret, I'd definitely put Tang Mo in her place.'
Tang Mo couldn't be bothered to deal with her. She changed her clothes and started familiarizing herself with the experiment.
Professor Tian's lab was currently focused on soil analysis. Every three days, they would collect samples from the ground for testing and analysis.
They had discovered that since the beginning of the apocalypse, the soil's molecular structure had changed. It could no longer provide the necessary nutrients for plant growth and was even damaging their root systems.
The most terrifying part was that the soil's molecular structure hadn't stabilized on day one of the apocalypse. Instead, it was constantly shifting, splitting, and changing. No one could predict what it would ultimately become.
Professor Tian was trying to figure out how to alter this structure and restore the land to an arable state.
Furthermore, Professor Tian had a bold theory: the rapid division of the soil's molecular structure wasn't necessarily a bad thing.
If it could be properly harnessed, it might one day become the best possible fertilizer for plants.
Tang Mo's academic foundation was solid. She quickly grasped Professor Tian's intentions and was able to jump right into the experiment.
She didn't know if the soil's fission, with human intervention, could ultimately accelerate plant growth.
But she suspected this research might be closely related to the legendary genetic serum of the future—the one that caused a person's attribute values to rapidly increase.
'Could Professor Tian have also been involved in the research for that genetic serum?'
Because conditions were so harsh, even during their lunch break, everyone had to go to a designated distribution point to collect their portion of food and water, then find their own spot to eat.
It had been nearly three months since the famine began, and the university was essentially out of supplies. The flour and pickled vegetables were long gone. All that remained was some rice, and students were given half a bowl of thin, watery porridge each day just to survive.
Making the porridge required a lot of water, so the daily water ration per person had been reduced from half a bottle to a quarter of a bottle.
They couldn't last much longer like this.
Song Qing sat in a small equipment storage room in the lab, slowly sipping the thin rice porridge from her bowl.
"I've been looking all over for you. This is a pretty secret lunch spot," Tang Mo said as she pushed the door open and glanced around.
"There's even a cot. You really know how to live it up."
"I don't usually take a nap. You can use it in a bit."
Song Qing offered, knowing that Tang Mo used to wake up very late and worrying that the new early-morning schedule would be hard on her.
Every night, Tang Mo went out to train for about four hours. She would come back and crash into bed, and since she had nothing to do during the day, she had gotten into the habit of sleeping in.
"Here," Tang Mo said, "I saved half for you. It's too much for just me."
Tang Mo handed her the half of a flaky pastry she was holding.
Song Qing accepted it without any fuss and took a bite.
Since they were roommates, she knew that Tang Mo had far more food stored away than anyone imagined, so she didn't feel the need to be overly polite.
As the soft bread melted in her mouth, she realized something was off.
All the bread available now had been in storage for months. Even if it wasn't past its expiration date, it would never taste this fresh.
But the bread she was eating tasted as if it had just been baked. The fresh flavor made her mouth water uncontrollably.
She quickly hid the surprise in her eyes. Song Qing was a tactful person; if someone didn't want to talk about something, she wouldn't pry.
.........
The plot has been a little slow these past two days. To thank all my readers for their continued support, there will be an extra chapter tonight around 10 PM.
Ranran is working hard typing away! I hope you can all sprinkle some love with collections and votes! Love you all~