0087 An Unexpected Meeting with the Parents

Seeing the two security guards flank him on either side, Chen Jue knew there was no longer any chance of escape. He considered reaching into his pocket to pull out a pack of cigarettes, perhaps offering a few to the guards in an attempt to curry favor and persuade them to let him go. But then he remembered he was halfway through quitting, and apart from the good cigarettes that Jiang Zhe would occasionally give him, he didn’t usually carry any himself. Left with no other option, he produced his student ID to prove his status as an auditing student.

“An auditing student?”

“Let me see your student ID!” The tall security guard leading the pair was clearly skeptical. After all, Chen Jue had a reputation for petty theft. The footage showed how swiftly Chen Jue scaled the wall—no one could develop such skills without at least a decade of experience as a cat burglar. Besides, he had chosen the most remote and isolated section of the campus wall. If not for a blurry figure captured by a distant surveillance camera, and after days of closely tracking his pattern, the control room wouldn’t have dispatched the guards to lie in wait and catch him in the act.

When Chen Jue did indeed present his student ID, the two guards radioed the security office to verify his information through the internal system. Once his identity was confirmed, they put away their batons, their tone softening. “Since you’re an auditing student and don’t have a homeroom teacher, we’ll give you a verbal warning this time—don’t let it happen again!”

“Come with us and write a letter of assurance.”

“If you do this again, we’ll report you to the academic office and you’ll be publicly criticized across the whole university.” They took Chen Jue to the nearest campus security office, registered his entrance and exit, and pointed out the wall of surveillance monitors, warning him not to do anything so foolish again just to save a few minutes by taking a shortcut.

Though the Jiangda campus appeared loosely guarded, in reality, surveillance cameras covered every corner. Especially at the unattended sections of the wall, high-definition cameras kept constant watch. The system was even networked with the local police station; any suspicious activity would prompt an immediate alert, all to protect the intellectuals on campus. After all, this was one of the nation’s top universities, full of elite minds—any incident would be a loss for the country’s future, and the security staff couldn’t bear such responsibility. That’s why Captain Liu, the leader of the guards, spoke sternly and had Chen Jue sign a letter of assurance before letting him go.

But not long after Chen Jue left, several off-duty guards in the control room couldn’t help but gossip about the incident. “Was it really one of our own students?”

“Of course! I saw it myself with Brother Sun—the kid flew—no, climbed over the wall.”

“Damn! That wall’s so high, and he scaled it in just two seconds, like some martial arts hero on wires.”

“Amazing! Jiangda really does produce talent. I could do that before I left the army, but now I’d probably struggle.” The guards joked and laughed, treating it as an amusing event.

“Damn it! I’m never climbing walls again!” Chen Jue muttered inwardly, warning himself not to try anything out of line at home. The sight of all those surveillance cameras had rattled him. All this time, he’d been smugly climbing over the wall to get to class, only to realize he’d been watched the entire time by the security team. It was as socially mortifying as it could get. Fortunately, he’d only received a verbal warning and hadn’t been expelled on the spot—otherwise, he wouldn’t even know where to find a second letter of recommendation.

Because he’d been caught, some time had been lost, and he ended up missing the first period’s biology lecture. But at least he made it to the second class without further mishap, found a seat, and settled in.

To his surprise, during this Genetics and Laboratory class, Chen Jue spotted a familiar face. Zheng Yuan, who was already a junior, appeared alongside a middle-aged lecturer.

“Brother Jue! Here to audit the class?” Zheng Yuan finished taking roll for the class, then plopped down beside Chen Jue with a cheeky grin.

“Why are you sitting in on a freshman class? Aren’t you in your third year?” Chen Jue asked, suspicious.

“Oh, I’m assisting my uncle as class assistant! I handle all the chores for this new biology freshman class,” Zheng Yuan explained, revealing the identity of the middle-aged man at the podium.

“Uncle? Isn’t that Wu Fang’s father?” At the mention, Chen Jue immediately straightened up, feeling as if a mouse had just spotted a cat. He eyed the professor nervously. Wu Fang’s father had a tall, athletic build, obviously someone who kept fit. Though he didn’t wear glasses, he had the refined air of a university professor.

“A family of high achievers, indeed!” Chen Jue thought, feeling a pang of inferiority as he noticed Wu’s name, Wu Yingxue, among the authors of the course textbook—a publication from Jiangda itself.

The class assistant position, as Zheng Yuan described, was something Chen Jue had encountered before: every homeroom teacher or counselor would select an outstanding upperclassman to help freshmen adjust to campus life. Wu Yingxue, noticing a new face in the back row whispering with his nephew, paused for a closer look. In the small-class setting, he knew all his students, so a stranger stood out. Remembering some family rumors, he squinted at Chen Jue, suspicion growing: “Could this be the young man who chased after Fangfang in the park?”

“Looks so ordinary… Could this really be the type to catch Fangfang’s eye?” Chen Jue, in turn, felt a sudden chill in broad daylight, his heart fluttering and palms sweating as if he were sitting on pins and needles. Perhaps he’d coveted someone else’s daughter too long, and now, having plans to whisk their precious child away, he found himself immediately placed on the prospective father-in-law’s blacklist.

Sensing the strange dynamic between his future brother-in-law and uncle, Zheng Yuan covertly pulled out his phone, filmed a short clip of the pair during class, and sent it to the family’s junior group chat: “Sis! Guess who Uncle’s teaching today? (smirk) @Wu Fang”

Wu Fang: “Zheng Yuan!!! I’ll give you five seconds to reconsider and delete that, or else (cracks knuckles, looking for trouble)”

Startled, Zheng Yuan quickly retracted the message: “(message withdrawn)”

Zheng Xiaojun: “What’s going on? I saw a video just now, but it disappeared right away!”

Wu Zhiwei: “Thanks, cousin, I was fast enough to save it. Anyone who wants the gossip, send me 50 (snacking emoji).”

Wu Lingling: “Zhiwei, share the video! Let’s all review it critically together—I’ll pay for everyone’s viewing (200 yuan group red envelope).”

Wu Fang: “(collapses, blood draining)”

Wu Fang, recovering from a fever at home, flushed crimson upon seeing the gossip in the family chat, alarming her mother beside her. “Fangfang, what’s wrong? Has your fever gone up again?”

“Mom! I’m fine!” Knowing explanations would only make things worse, Wu Fang pulled the blanket over her head and played ostrich.

Meanwhile, back in class, Chen Jue did his best to focus seriously on Professor Wu’s lecture.

“In the last class, we discussed the heredity and evolution of the brain,” Wu began. “To put it simply, the human brain is a biological computer whose workings remain beyond the full grasp of modern science—an organ of formidable computational power and astonishingly low energy consumption.”

“The energy for this biological computer is supplied by the coordinated function of our digestive, circulatory, metabolic, and endocrine systems. And, like any PC, our brain’s operation depends on an intricate foundational code—our genetic information, or DNA.”

“DNA allows this computer—the brain—and its power source—the body—to accurately replicate itself before the end of its lifespan, passing on genetic information to the next generation through normal reproduction.”

“Of course, not all DNA is preserved. Just as computer systems develop bugs and inefficiencies that require updates or hardware changes, so too does our genetic logic evolve. This aligns with Darwin’s theory of evolution, as outlined in The Origin of Species, and with the law of natural selection—the survival of the fittest.”

“Superior, adaptive DNA is actively selected and passed down through generations…”

As the bell rang, Professor Wu paid no more attention to the whispered exchanges in the back row, falling into the rhythm of his lecture. Chen Jue, meanwhile, listened intently. Drawing on both his previous studies and prompts from his own mysterious panel, he began to gain new insight into the phrase “survival of the fittest.”

“Humanity has gradually regressed over the course of history. As material conditions improved, our bodies adapted to comfort. The purpose of the panel’s existence is to guide my body’s evolution in a reasonable direction—toward greater perfection, toward better adaptation!”

“That explains it—‘Throwing’ as a skill is for catching prey; ‘Climbing’ is for escaping predators or gathering food; ‘Skipping stones’ is for hunting aquatic prey.”

“‘Eye exercises’ and ‘ear exercises’ are to enhance vision and hearing—again, for adaptation.”

“But wait… Tai Chi, hidden weapon throwing—those skills are for dealing with other humans!”

“Humans don’t just compete with animals or plants for survival, but with each other! Just like me, feeling a primal urge to ‘connect and exchange DNA’ with Teacher Wu—an instinctual drive for reproduction encoded in our genes…”

Lost in these spiraling thoughts, Chen Jue barely noticed the passage of time. His gaze, which at the start of class had been thoughtful and uncertain, gradually cleared as understanding dawned.

For just as the bell rang for the end of class, the panel displayed a prompt he had never seen before:

——————

[Ding~]

[You have completed a systematic study of biological evolution and genetics, gaining awareness of the efforts our human ancestors made in the process of natural selection.]

[Your brain has entered a brief period of overclocking; neuronal metabolism accelerates, and your thought processes have gained a slight improvement.]

[Constitution +0.01]

[Spirit +0.01]

[Underlying logic of your attribute panel is updating.]

[Estimated time to completion: 24:00]

Second update~

Off to bed after writing—please vote if you enjoyed it.

As for the details of “connection and DNA exchange,” I’ll leave that to your imaginations—not writing that out (wink).

(End of chapter)