Worlds Apart | Chapter 19 | Sanctuary in the Lab | Novela.app

After purchasing the laptop, the siblings boarded the bus home. Bei Bei was so exhausted that she fell asleep during the ride, leaning half her weight against Jiang Tong while still clutching the MacBook box tightly in her arms. His phone buzzed with a notification. It was a message from Xiao Fengtai. "You don't have to force yourself." The remark was abrupt and lacked context, yet Jiang Tong knew he was referring to the invitation from that afternoon. The envelope was still in his overcoat pocket. Jiang Tong experienced a strange delusion, as if the spot where the envelope rested had begun to emit a faint, searing heat. "I’m not," he replied slowly. "Thank you for the invitation. I’m looking forward to it." Xiao Fengtai did not reply again; perhaps he had finally sensed the lack of sincerity in Jiang Tong’s words. Staring at the sent message on his screen, Jiang Tong felt a renewed, heartfelt disgust for his own hypocrisy. This subtle sense of self-loathing persisted until they reached home. Bei Bei was dazed with sleepiness; she washed up cursorily and crawled into bed, pulling the covers over her head. A heavy, stagnant air seemed trapped in Jiang Tong’s chest. He sat in the living room for a moment, and unwilling to disturb his sister, he decided to head to the laboratory. He felt a desperate need to do something—anything—to prove that he still possessed an unquestionable positive value to society. At midnight on a weekend, the lab was quiet and vast. The only sound was the continuous drone of the centrifuge, which acted as a hypnotic sort of white noise. The restlessness in Jiang Tong’s heart was strangely soothed by this sound. He turned on his computer, preparing to process the experimental data from earlier that day. While waiting for the system to boot, he suddenly heard a very faint *click* behind him. In the profound silence of the lab, however, every sound was automatically amplified. A chill ran down Jiang Tong’s spine. He instinctively grabbed a large boiling flask and stood up, approaching the source of the sound with caution. Only then did he realize it was Pei Jing. "Oh, it's you." He relaxed instantly, setting the flask back on the bench. "You didn't even say hello when I came in. You made me think a thief had broken into the lab." Pei Jing was staring intently at his work, not even lifting his head. "Didn't you come over on your own anyway?" Typical of his style. Jiang Tong didn't know whether to laugh or cry, so he simply changed the subject. "Working this late on a weekend?" "I want to finish the RNA sequence alignment as soon as possible," Pei Jing said softly, his face practically screaming 'Do Not Disturb.' Jiang Tong scratched his head. "Is there anything I can help you with?" Pei Jing finally looked up, measuring him with a critical, discerning gaze. "Do you know how to do RNA sequencing?" Pei Jing was of Eurasian descent, tall with sharp, well-defined features. Though he was young, flecks of gray were already appearing at his temples. A pair of grayish-blue eyes were set deep in his sockets, his gaze colder and more austere than that of an average person. "I did it before in Professor Gu's class," Jiang Tong answered calmly, ignoring the other man's skeptical scrutiny. Pei Jing let out a grunt through his nose. "Go get the samples yourself." "If there's something you don't know, tell me immediately. Whatever you do, don't pretend to understand if you don't." He paused, adding in a low, warning tone, "I won't allow your mistakes to slow down the progress of the experiment." Jiang Tong was already accustomed to his tyrannical demeanor once he entered work mode. He simply smiled, put on his gloves, and began. In a way, a lab grunt performing gene sequencing shared a certain affinity with an old woman in a Buddhist temple transcribing the Diamond Sutra—it was repetitive, mechanical work; monotonous and dull, yet requiring the participant's absolute concentration. Through the simple, cyclical movements of the body, the redundant distractions in the mind gradually faded away, leaving only a state of selfless emptiness. Jiang Tong finished the task in one go. When he looked up at the clock, it was already five in the morning. Pei Jing was still motionless in front of his computer, his back ramrod straight, his fingers occasionally tapping away at the keyboard. If it weren't for the dark circles under his eyes growing a shade deeper, Jiang Tong would have almost suspected he was a power-driven robot. "I'm finished," Jiang Tong said, walking over to Pei Jing. "I've sent the data to your computer." "I'm looking at it now." Pei Jing’s eyes were bright, and a smile unconsciously tugged at the corners of his mouth. Most people couldn't make heads or tails of raw data, but the way he gazed at the screen with such tenderness made it seem as if a peerless beauty lived inside the computer. *Pei Jing must be a virgin,* Jiang Tong suddenly recalled a comment from a senior female student in the lab—*the pleasure he gets from achieving results is far higher than that of a satisfying sex life.* With several gigabytes of data, the computer needed time to process. Pei Jing set up the software and finally leaned back, letting out a soft sigh of relief. "I've learned a lot these past few months," Jiang Tong said quickly. "Thank you and Professor Gu for giving me this opportunity." Pei Jing seemed to suddenly take an interest in him, observing Jiang Tong with the peculiar, analytical gaze of a scientist. "Why didn't you go home for the weekend? I saw you with your sister in the lab during the day. Aren't you spending time with her tonight?" "She's asleep. I didn't have anything else to do anyway, so I thought I'd come by the lab." "And ended up getting conscripted by me." Pei Jing’s lips curled slightly in a rare joke. "Why are you working overtime on the weekend too?" Seeing that he was in a good mood, Jiang Tong’s curiosity got the better of him, and he asked cautiously. "When Professor Gu assigned the schedule last week, he said it would be fine as long as we finished the sequencing by next week." Pei Jing’s answer was simple and blunt: "I wanted to see the results sooner." "It's like waiting for lottery numbers to be drawn—rather than sitting at home feeling restless, it's better to reveal the results early. It's not like there's anything else to do, anyway." Jiang Tong was genuinely impressed. "You are the most dedicated researcher I've ever met." ***