Chang Tianxiang and Chang Tianxiong's laboratories were on the third and fourth floors, respectively, both already piled high with various divine remains.
Qin Siyang had thought that when it came to hunting gods, he was already pretty knowledgeable.
But he couldn't recognize most of the divine remains here, nor could he make sense of what classification system was being used to arrange them.
Hao Liang and Wu Yu's laboratories were on the fifth floor, and the items placed inside were even more incomprehensible to Qin Siyang.
As for the sixth floor, it was Li Tianming's laboratory, with one corner room belonging to Zhang Kuang.
Li Tianming's laboratory was the most outrageous. Other than some instruments, it was filled with all sorts of random junk.
Things like baseball bats and flip-flops, leaving Qin Siyang completely at a loss as to what he was even trying to do.
Meanwhile, Zhang Kuang's laboratory was the cleanest and tidiest. The desks could reflect the lights, as though they had been waxed.
That matched exactly the impression Qin Siyang had of him.
Disheveled in appearance, but meticulous when it came to work.
Back in the kindergarten director's office, Zhang Kuang's office had also been spotless.
A sharp contrast with his messy hair.
Now at South Glory University, everything was still the same.
All the professors were busy.
Lu Daoxing packed items into storage boxes to carry into the lab and take back out again, saving trouble.
There were also those like Chang Tianxiang and Chang Tianxiong, who simply carried things by hand.
Those two professors looked physically frail, yet could directly haul equipment weighing thousands of pounds and climb three or four floors in one go without difficulty.
They weren't strength-type sequence users, so all of this came from the enhancements to their bodies from raising their sequence levels.
Having this kind of strength only made Qin Siyang more curious about their sequence levels.
After Qin Siyang finished looking around, he received a call from Lu Daoxing.
["Xiao Qin, let's head out now."]
"Now? It's only a little after three in the afternoon, dinner this early?", Qin Siyang leaned on the railing and glanced down at the courtyard, where some of Lu Daoxing's equipment was still sitting, "Besides, it looks like you haven't finished packing everything yet?"
Lu Daoxing laughed, ["It's fine, it's impossible to pack up the whole lab in just one day. I've got a lot of stuff, it'll take at least a week. No rush. Let's go first, we don't need to eat, just have a chat."]
"Alright."
Since Lu Daoxing wasn't in a hurry, Qin Siyang didn't have anything to worry about either.
He got into Lu Daoxing's sedan. From the exterior to the interior, it was a pleasure to look at. Definitely not cheap.
Sitting in the passenger seat, Qin Siyang touched the comfortable leather upholstery, "Professor Lu, this car of yours looks pretty nice."
Lu Daoxing said, "Back when I worked at the Earthly Research Institute, the car configuration was something the institute required."
"The research institute, they even care about this?"
"Of course. I often had to represent the United Government and the institute at conferences, so the institute required every professor's car to be able to hold up the image, in order to attract more university professors to join the institute."
"You know, the institute doesn't have many advantages besides paying a lot of money. They naturally wanted that money to show results, so they made it mandatory for us to be equipped with luxury cars."
Qin Siyang scratched his head, "Does that really work?"
"You wouldn't believe it, but a plan that so nakedly shows off the disparity really does work. Many university professors actually aren't well-off. When they saw that after we joined the institute, the money we spent just on cars was equal to several years of their salaries, they immediately felt unbalanced."
"So, they chose to resign from their universities and join the institute."
Hearing this, Qin Siyang also understood the situation Lu Daoxing was describing.
It wasn't that people feared living poorly themselves. It was that they feared seeing someone similar to them suddenly living better.
At this point, Lu Daoxing's tone dimmed, "I think this car is too flashy. I've never driven it home. If I had shown it to her earlier, maybe my wife wouldn't have thought we were poor, wouldn't have been so intent on trying to contribute to household income."
"Sigh, it's my fault, I was too careless."
Listening to Lu Daoxing blaming himself, Qin Siyang showed an incredulous expression.
His wife had lost a fortune speculating on futures, leaving massive debts, how could that possibly be blamed on Lu Daoxing?
He really knew how to shoulder the blame.
Even more of a doormat than Qin Siyang had been in his previous life.
"Professor Lu, let me say this objectively, how could this possibly be your fault? If it weren't for your wife wanting to earn some extra cash, none of this trouble would've happened."
Lu Daoxing shook his head, "You don't understand. This really can't be blamed on her."
Qin Siyang didn't respond, sensing that there was more to it, and waited for him to go on.
Lu Daoxing said, "She felt useless just staying at home, always wanted to do something to help me, so that's why she speculated on futures."
Qin Siyang couldn't help cutting in, "If she felt useless staying at home, shouldn't she have found a job?"
"Her health conditions made working impossible."
"Impossible to work?"
"Mm. This goes back a long way."
Lu Daoxing's eyes grew distant with memory.
"We met playing baseball back in middle school, and we got together then. It was basically puppy love."
"She was always outstanding, beautiful and elegant, bright and sunny. The first time I saw her, I was mesmerized."
"I went after her with just a try-my-luck attitude, but I didn't expect her to actually say yes."
"She was always much stronger than me, like a capable woman. Back then in school, from middle to high school, my grades never once surpassed hers. On top of that, my looks were average, so I never thought she'd look twice at me, let alone like me that much."
"At the time, I felt like I was the luckiest man in the world!"
As he said this, Lu Daoxing's smile was sweet as honey, to the point that even Qin Siyang was taken aback.
"Our relationship was always great. After graduating university, we got married. I went on to do a PhD, and she worked in the same city where I studied."
"A few years later, I stayed on at the university as a lecturer. At that time, with her abilities, she became an executive at a very successful startup, earning over ten times my salary. The house and car we bought after marriage were all paid for by her."
"But she never once looked down on me, and kept comforting me, saying that as a researcher at a university, I'd only grow more valuable with age, that I was a potential stock."
Hearing this, Qin Siyang couldn't help feeling envious at Lu Daoxing's blissful smile.
If only he could also meet a woman who truly loved and understood him like that. [T/N: Don't forget Wen Shu, you Hugh Janus.]
"With her support, I devoted myself fully to research, and finally managed to make a name for myself. Everything was getting better and better. We were even planning to have two kids within the next three years."
"And then, the apocalypse came."
'The apocalypse?'
Qin Siyang didn't have many memories of the apocalypse, so his curiosity was piqued.
"When the apocalypse came, gods appeared, slaughtering recklessly. Countless people died, and the entire state of the world changed overnight."
"All our previous achievements vanished instantly. We were terrified, struggling to find a way out."
"Li Tianming contacted me, said a safe zone had been established in the west, a place we could survive. We qualified for acceptance into the safe zone, so I drove us toward it."
"Old Li?"
"Yeah, we knew each other before the apocalypse, we got along well. The area he was in had just been designated part of the safe zone, and he told me the details."
"So that's how it was."
Lu Daoxing continued, "There were some gods along the way, but we managed to narrowly avoid them. We thought we'd reach the safe zone smoothly."
"But just before we got there, one of my tires blew. To change it quickly, the two of us got out to do it together."
"That was when, out of nowhere, a small mutated Scythe Beetle appeared."
Lu Daoxing let out a bitter laugh.
"The mutated Scythe Beetle, you know, a small god. And this one was on the smaller side. Now, I could kill it with a flick of my fingers."
"But back then, we were helpless."
"We rushed to get back in the car to escape, but the Scythe Beetle swung a scythe-like appendage straight at me."
"At the time, I thought I was dead for sure."
"But at the last second, she pushed me out of the way, letting me narrowly dodge it."
"She herself… was run through the abdomen by the scythe."
═❀═❀═❀═❀═❀═❀═
patreon.com/AmbitiousTranslator
🥳Joining Patreon keeps me motivated and eager to work diligently, so please consider joining.🥰 You can access upto 20 advance chapter through Patreon.