Third floor of the School of Life Sciences, the Plant Genetics and Molecular Breeding Laboratory.
The air was thick with the bitter scent unique to overworked researchers.
Several graduate students in white lab coats bustled around the various workstations.
As the "big brother" of the research group, postdoctoral fellow Liu Dong seemed a bit absent-minded today.
He held a pipette in his hand, but his eyes kept darting toward the laboratory entrance.
A second-year grad student, his junior, shot him a curious glance.
This senior of theirs was famous for his concentration during experiments. Why was he so distracted today?
"Brother Dong, when are we going to start the genomic DNA extraction and library construction for that batch of Alpine Willow Chrysanthemum relatives we collected from field sites in three provinces? The sequencing platform is asking for an update."
This snapped Liu Dong back to his senses.
He put down the pipette, shook his head, and said,
"Set it aside for now. Wait. Someone’s coming to do it."
"Someone’s coming to do it?" The junior looked completely lost.
’Everyone in our group who’s still breathing is right here. Who else is there??’
Just then, KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK, someone rapped on the glass door of the lab’s buffer room.
The door swung open, and two people, already changed into standard lab gear, walked in.
The moment Liu Dong saw them, he immediately stood up and walked over.
"Grandson!"
Liu Dong called out.
Li Dong, who was following behind, felt his eye twitch. He could clearly see Sun Xiang’s face turn green.
But there was nothing he could say to refute it.
The nickname "Grandson" had been coined by his senior, Liu Dong, back when Sun Xiang first joined the group as a graduate student. It was partly because his surname was Sun, and partly because during his first experiment, his hands had trembled as if he had Parkinson’s.
Professor Zhang was usually busy applying for grants, attending meetings, and securing projects. The one who had actually stood at the lab bench and personally taught Sun Xiang how to do plasmid extractions, run electrophoresis, and perform transformations was none other than Liu Dong.
So, although Sun Xiang’s face was green, he still stepped forward and gave Liu Dong a firm hug.
After they let go, Liu Dong didn’t bother with pleasantries and got straight to the point.
"Did you agree to the professor’s request?"
Sun Xiang nodded.
"Good, good, good." Liu Dong said it three times, patting Sun Xiang’s shoulder forcefully.
Then he looked at Li Dong.
"Your student?" Liu Dong asked.
"Yes, my student, Li Dong," Sun Xiang introduced him.
"Alright then, what are we waiting for? Let’s get right to it."
Liu Dong wasted no words. Science types were known for being decisive and disliking empty formalities.
The lab bench was where you proved your worth.
Li Dong was led to a spacious lab bench, where absorbent paper had been laid out.
A liquid nitrogen tank, a mortar and pestle, and centrifuge tubes were already arranged on the benchtop.
In the fume hood nearby, CTAB lysis buffer and chloroform-isoamyl alcohol had been prepared in advance.
"Extracting plant genomic DNA using the modified CTAB method... Sun Xiang taught you the procedure, right?"
Liu Dong asked, standing behind Li Dong.
"He did," Li Dong nodded.
Extracting plant DNA sounded so sophisticated, making laypeople immediately think of things like double helix structures.
But to put it bluntly, it was like stealing something from a heavily guarded fortress.
The plant cell wall is like the fortress’s outer wall, so the first step is to break through it.
You flash-freeze the tissue with liquid nitrogen, then physically grind it to a pulp with a mortar and pestle.
Next, you add the CTAB lysis buffer to dissolve the cell membrane. This step is like cracking open the safe.
Finally, you use reagents like chloroform-isoamyl alcohol to wash away unwanted impurities like proteins and polysaccharides, precipitating the pure DNA blueprint. And just like that, you’ve got the goods.
Li Dong put on his safety goggles and opened the liquid nitrogen tank.
As the white, cold vapor billowed out, Liu Dong grew nervous.
This batch of wild samples of Alpine Willow Chrysanthemum relatives were treasures, collected after trekking through the mountains of three different provinces.
Plant samples weren’t like animal samples; they were chock-full of secondary metabolites. If the grinding wasn’t thorough enough or the wrong reagent was added, the DNA would degrade in an instant.
Just as Liu Dong was on edge, Sun Xiang, blissfully unconcerned, began to reminisce about the past.
"Brother Dong, this old PCR thermocycler hasn’t been scrapped yet?"
"Huh? You guys switched to this brand of centrifuge tubes for purification? Wasn’t the old brand pretty good?"
A vein throbbed on Liu Dong’s forehead. He finally couldn’t take it anymore.
He lowered his voice as much as possible and said through gritted teeth,
"Grandson! Stop asking a million questions. Aren’t you going to watch your own student?"
"Let me tell you, if his hand slips and he degrades my samples, I can’t do anything to a high schooler, but I’ll definitely tear you limb from limb!"
Hearing this, Sun Xiang leaned against the lab bench and laughed.
"Brother Dong, you know my personality, don’t you?"
"Would I let him touch your prized possessions if I wasn’t two hundred percent sure?"
Liu Dong was taken aback. He knew Sun Xiang. Sure, the guy was a little ugly, had a sharp tongue, showered once a week, and was an Andromeda...
But!
When it came to professional matters, he was still very reliable.
Only then did he set aside his prejudice and start paying attention to Li Dong’s movements.
’Hmm... very skilled with the micropipette, no hesitation at all.’
’The angle of the tip when aspirating the supernatant is also professional, and the pause time when dispensing the droplet against the tube wall...’
The more Liu Dong watched, the more satisfied he became. This high schooler’s technique was fast, accurate, and steady!
His rhythm was excellent, too. While waiting for the centrifuge to finish spinning, he pre-warmed the reagents needed for the next step and arranged the tubes in a neat, orderly fashion.
And there wasn’t a single wasted motion.
This!
Liu Dong marveled internally.
’This is the sacred body of a lab rat! If he were my assistant...’
Liu Dong gulped and turned back to look at Sun Xiang.
"This... you taught him?"
Sun Xiang puffed out his chest with pride.
"Of course! I taught him myself, step-by-step, in the lab at Sixth Middle School."
Liu Dong was confused.
"But... you weren’t this good when you were doing it back in the day."
Sun Xiang: "..."
At that moment, Li Dong, sitting in front of the clean bench, didn’t notice the conversation behind him at all.
His 0.2 Concentration Attribute filtered out all external noise.
His entire focus was on the centrifuge tubes, the pipette, and the microscopic reactions of the reagents before him.
However, even if he had heard Liu Dong’s words, he would have just scoffed inwardly.
’Do you have any idea who the GOAT of biological experiments is?’
’It’s Gregor Mendel, the one who gave me the [Life Analysis] passive aura!’
Mendel may have been from the 19th century, an era that didn’t even know what pipettes or PCR machines looked like, but the fundamental logic of experimentation doesn’t change.
The reason Mendel became a legend wasn’t just because of his theories, but because of his terrifyingly precise techniques!
With a pair of tweezers and a small brush, he personally emasculated and pollinated tens of thousands of pea flowers!
Over a period of eight years, he never once had an instance of cross-pollen contamination, never once made a procedural error!
What kind of terrifying stability did that require? What kind of keen biological intuition?
The [Life Analysis] he gave Li Dong didn’t come from nowhere. It was a skill he ground out through countless experiments!
Besides, think about where Li Dong’s first of the Passive Skills came from.
It was from James Joule, another GOAT of experimentation.
To prove the mechanical equivalent of heat, Joule personally crafted the world’s most precise thermometers and calorimeters of his time.
The practical logic behind physics experiments and biology experiments is completely interconnected.
And what was the third step of Joule’s learning method?
—[Association + Generalization Transfer]!
Fundamental skills can be seamlessly transferred between disciplines!
Eliminating confounding variables, controlling for absolute precision, maintaining perfect operational stability...
’With these two experimental titans from across the centuries backing me, you think I’d screw up a simple DNA extraction?’
’Who in the group are you looking down on?’

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