1 Mutated Aphid

In the spring of 2018 in the Jiangzhou District, east of the Jiangsu Province, China. 

The four programs of biology, chemistry, environmental science, and material science were always reputed to be the four heavenly-defying unemployment professions.

However, Zhou Wen found the comment to be somewhat inaccurate because titles such as the "Four Heavenly Kings" and the "Four Little Actresses" were created to grab people's attention and were often used as a gimmick. 

It would seem that the biology program was the main culprit among the four courses. The rest of the few programs were only added in to make up the numbers. 

The biology program was the real entrapment. While the rest of the programs could still help one find jobs that fitted in with their vocational training, the graduates from the biology program could not even find anything remotely close to what they had learned. 

At one glance, it appeared as if there were still many professions related to the biology program, including those from the chemical industry, medical industry, pharmaceutical industry, and even the cosmetic industry. 

Yet, the cosmetic industry and the chemical plants were only looking into hiring chemical science or chemical engineering graduates. Meanwhile, the hospitals were surely only hiring medical graduates, and the pharmaceutical companies would prioritize chemical engineering or pharmacy graduates. 

Unfortunately, despite having studied for many years, the graduates of the biology program remained nondescript and unemployable.

It would not be an exaggeration for Zhou Wen to say that he felt as if nothing had changed even after being enrolled in the biology program for four years as compared to when he had just graduated from high school. 

He was a fourth-year student at Jiangzhou University and was a resident in the School of Life Sciences. He majored in biotechnology. 

At the very start of his program, he was placed into the Biology department due to his poor scores. Had he not been tricked by his senior with lofty ideals of science, he would have changed his major much earlier. 

If he had known earlier that the future of a biology graduate was all dark and gloomy, he would rather have opted for his second option or retake the examination. 

He did not come from a wealthy family so his parents worked hard to put him through university. They were counting on him to come out on top of his career. What a waste that they were unaware of how there was completely no prospect for biology graduates. In fact, Zhou Wen did not dare to tell them either. 

It was already too late for him to tell them under the circumstances. 

Zhou Wen was about to graduate soon, so he was extremely anxious. He had already applied to over a dozen companies but failed all the interviews. He was desperately looking for any available job to make ends meet and would eventually switch to another career path whenever an opportunity arose. 

He was looking for anything in sales, information technology, or even finance. And if things did not pan out, he would become a content creator or an online streamer. He was rather good looking so if he were to put on some makeup and get dressed in Japanese school uniform or sukumizu and apply a suitable filter to smooth out his skin and use a voice-changing software, perhaps he could end up as a mogul in the online streaming community. 

Besides, no one would ask about the origin of a cross-dressed persona in today's society. 

…

At seven in the morning, Zhou Wen had arrived at the laboratory building. 

There were only a total of seven people in the laboratory now, including him, and four of them were often unreachable.

Had it not been for his desire to obtain the graduation certificate, he would have also made himself unreachable too. 

He changed into the white lab coat in the changing room and entered the laboratory after passing through a simple sterilization chamber. 

The enormous, spacious laboratory was almost empty. Not a single soul was in sight. 

Zhou Wen put on a pair of rubber gloves before he began bustling about in an orderly manner. 

He procured the labware that he needed such as pipette tips, glass slides, test tubes, and culture dishes before he washed them and placed them into the autoclave sterilizer and ultrasonic cleaning machine for sterilization. 

While he waited for the process to be complete, he watched some videos and scrolled through social media before he finally began playing Happy Poker. 

He had won 110,000 after an hour just by using 3,000 free Happy Beans and the card register app. However, his hopes were dashed in a single blow. 

Zhou Wen cursed, "M*th*rf*ck*r! What the f*ck! B*st*rd!"

Meanwhile, the timer beeped. 

He kept his phone and put on a pair of rubber gloves again before he made his way to the next room. He procured a test tube from the ultra-low temperature refrigerator and transferred the frozen aphid from the test tube into a mortar. 

His mentor studied rice root aphid control by learning how to stop the female rice root aphid's reproduction through gene inheritance. The unique thing about the rice root aphid was that it was capable of parthenogenetic reproduction. However, the main goal now was to find out how to utilize biochemistry to exterminate aphids from the body. 

After all, his mentor needed to make a living too. 

He reached for the liquid nitrogen bottle and scooped up a spoonful of liquid nitrogen that was then poured into the mortar. In an instant, ice cold mist emerged from the mortar with a gurgling sound akin to a pot of boiling water. It stripped away the heat from the aphid and the mortar rather rapidly. 

The purpose of adding liquid nitrogen to the already frozen aphid was to ensure that the aphid's cells freeze and crystalize rapidly such that it would be good for cell disruption. 

Having achieved what he wanted, he closed the lid of the liquid nitrogen bottle before he picked up a pestle on the side in preparation to begin grinding the aphid. 

However, it was at this exact moment when he saw a brown aphid swimming in the liquid nitrogen. This came as a shock to him!

Zhou Wen rubbed his eyes. He assumed that his eyes were playing tricks on him because he burnt the midnight oil yesterday trying to draft his resume. 

The aphid was frozen at a temperature of -100 degrees celsius in an ultra-low temperature refrigerator for 24 hours and then soaked in liquid nitrogen at a temperature of -190 degrees celsius, yet the m*th*rf*ck*r was still alive?

However, Zhou Wen discovered soon that his eyes were not playing tricks on him. The brown aphid that was about the size of a flea was really swimming in the liquid nitrogen. 

"F*ck me…" Zhou Wen widened his eyes in disbelief that his eyeballs almost rolled out of their sockets. Was this m*th*rf*ck*r still a rice root aphid?

With a perturbed mind and anxious feelings, he dipped the pestle in his hand to touch the mutated aphid. 

Unexpectedly, the mutated aphid that was floating about in the liquid nitrogen had crawled up the pestle rapidly and landed onto the back of his hand in an instant. 

Then, before he could react to the situation in time, the mutated aphid stabbed its two fine tentacles into his hand quite ferociously. 

"What the f*ck!!!" Zhou Wen cursed aloud as he flung his hand desperately with all his might to get rid of the aphid. 

"Clap." The mutated aphid on the back of his hand was flung onto the work table. It ended up in a messy puddle of blood and flesh. It was dead. 

Zhou Wen took a glance at the back of his hand. There was no sign of swelling, redness, or bleeding. 

He was feeling somewhat relieved when he suddenly felt the vision before his eyes darkened. Soon afterward, the room around him was spinning. 

At that very moment, he tumbled onto the ground. All he heard were the surprised gasps of a few people in the background. 

"Zhou Wen's fainted!"

"Call 120! Quick!"

"What's going on with you, Zhou Wen? Are you okay? Wake up, quick…"

Zhou Wen was not unconscious but his eyes could not see anything. He felt an intense fear in his heart. 

There were countless viruses that existed in nature. If a gentle sting from the mutated rice root aphid could make him almost pass out, can one imagine how toxic was the poison it carried?

Its bite might have been lethal. 

Fortunately, it was truly a relief for him that his concern did not turn into reality. The feeling of dizziness came and passed quickly, and soon, his vision became focused once again. 

A huge, round face condensed into form before his eyes. 

It was the laboratory leader and also his senior in the same department. 

Zhou Wen was about to speak when a series of holographic blue words materialized before his eyes to his surprise.

[Name: Shi Lei. Gender: Male. Age: 25. Occupation: Student. Physical state: ??? Mental state: ???]

Zhou Wen blinked his eyes vigorously. He assumed that he was hallucinating. 

However, when he turned his head to look at the person again, the series of holographic blue words were still clearly displayed before his eyes. 

"What… What's that?" Zhou Wen stammered. 

Shi Lei, who was helping to prop up his upper body, said to Zhou Wen with concern while making a call, "You fainted earlier. How do you feel now? Do you feel unwell?"

Zhou Wen did not speak, but he looked toward the woman making the call rather suspiciously. 

[Name: Lin Jiayi. Gender: Female. Age: 24. Occupation: Student. Physical state: ??? Mental state: ???]

Zhou Wen muttered to himself, "Damn… Damn it."

"What were you saying? Should I call you an ambulance?" Lin Jiayi asked. Meanwhile, the voice of the hospital's operator was heard coming from the phone's speaker right after. 

Zhou Wen recovered from his state of shock as the holographic blue words before his eyes vanished. He shook his head while saying, "Uh… There's no need to call for an ambulance."

Then, Zhou Wen stood up with Shi Lei's help. 

He shook his head. The sudden, unexpected symptoms that he suffered earlier had all disappeared into nothingness. 

Shi Lei looked at the mortar that was still emitting cold mist on the working platform. He said in concern, "You should head back and take a rest. Leave the rest to me; I shall pack up."

At the thought of being bitten by the mutated aphid, Zhou Wen was worried that the symptoms he suffered earlier was a hallucination resulting from a viral infection, so he decided that he would take a blood test first. Hence, he said, "It's fine, it's fine. It's most probably due to my hypoglycemia."

"Are you sure?" Shi Lei asked once again. 

"Mmm hmm; I am sure."

Shi Lei did not insist anymore upon noticing Zhou Wen's determination. He found two pieces of candy for Zhou Wen. Then, he rejoined with Lin Jiayi to continue on their work. 

Zhou Wen shook his head once again. He wanted to examine himself briefly to make sure that he was okay so he tested his body temperature. 

Body surface temperature: 36.3 degrees celsius. 

Oral temperature: 37 degrees celsius. 

His body temperature was normal. 

Then, he picked up the mutated aphid's corpse that was smashed into mush with a tweezer. He picked up the insect by its body and placed it into a test tube that was sent back into the ultra-low temperature refrigerator. He would perform a viral test later. 

Next, he drew a test tube full of blood using a disposable lancet in preparation to perform a blood test when an even stranger scene emerged before his eyes all of a sudden.