Shenhai University, dormitory, 207.

The mobile phone rang unwillingly under the pillow, even if he sat on the other end of the bed, Xie Yongqing could still feel its indomitable vitality, he didn't remember the last time he charged it, but it still vibrated and rang, and the vitality was extraordinary. He didn't pick it up, and he didn't dare to pick it up, as if it wasn't a mobile phone under the projection, but a box with the devil in it, and if he moved, it would jump out and swallow him.

The bed is full of information and experimental reports like a natural moat, bringing him some unwarranted sense of security, Xie Yongqing stared at the pillow on the other side of the moat, unconsciously competing with the mobile phone for patience, and finally he won, and the mobile phone stopped moving.

Maybe it's just a power outage, Xie Yongqing thought, he now has the courage to go over and answer the phone, 27 unread text messages, two Han Le, one mother, 24 Yan Tian, 42 missed calls, and Yan Tian 42 times......

"Why don't you answer the phone?"

"Received a quick return."

"I know my mother's request is a bit excessive, but she is also for my good, if you have an opinion, you can mention it in person, what is it if you leave? You're still not a man. ”

"Don't keep using work as an excuse!"

"I've thought about it seriously in the past two days, and I want to talk to you."

"Answer the phone! Answer the phone! Answering the phone!! ”

"Xie Yongqing, what do you mean by this? Break up? ”

……

"I know you're in the dorm, open the door!"

"If you don't call before 6 o'clock, I'll break up with us."

Xie Yongqing glanced out the window, the sun was crumbling on the city horizon, and the dim light was faintly projected along the gap in the building, but it stabbed his eyes, Xie Yongqing glanced at the time on his mobile phone, 5:18.

Compared with Yan Tian's highly repetitive and meaningless text messages, her mother's text messages are much more concise and to the point: "Your father's anger has almost disappeared, take the time to go home." ”

That is, Han Le's one that can make him smile slightly: "Qiao Yiyu opened a bubble tea shop, dragged a rich second generation of Fu, and the business was booming, just in the ** subway station." ”

There is also an inconsequential one: "Your mother and Yan Tian have called to ask about your situation in the past few days, and I lied to them that you are a closed experiment, and if you receive it, you will call them." ”

The cause of the contradiction is actually very simple, that is, the house, or more strictly speaking, because of the difference in each other's attitudes towards life caused by the house - whether it is the difference between him and his parents, or the difference between him and his "prospective parents-in-law", or even Yan Tian, his parents want him to make money, Yan Tian hopes that he can stabilize as soon as possible, and Yan Tian's family hopes that he can settle in Shenhai, and the wishes of these three aspects are actually largely the same - that is, I hope that Xie Yongqing will get married and buy a house as soon as possible, but this is precisely not Xie Yongqing's wishes, Perhaps Xie Yongqing once longed for this standard life, and if the conditions were sufficient or to a large extent, Xie Yongqing would not reject such a life, but the problem now is that his conditions are too far away from this kind of life, so that if he insists on crossing this gap, his whole life may collapse because of it.

The last time she went to Yan Tian's house for dinner, her parents tactfully tested whether they had the intention to buy a house in Shenhai, Xie Yongqing did not shy away from his own and his family's economic conditions, and bluntly said that he had no such plan - even if he had a plan, he did not have the financial ability. However, Yan Tian's parents don't seem to be concerned about this issue, and they have been prepared for it for a long time - just like all other parents who care about the next generation, Yan Tian's parents plan to let the two families share the down payment on the house.

Xie Yongqing didn't answer this question directly at the time, just said that there was something and left, because before that, he was unprepared for this topic at all - he and Yan Tian had only been talking for more than a month, of course, according to Yan Tian's own words, in fact, she had liked Xie Yongqing for a year or two, but in Xie Yongqing's concept of time, Yan Tian was just a girlfriend for him, not to mention talking about marriage, even if he continued to develop, he had doubts. He didn't even know how much Yan Tian could spend in a month.

And as the two of them quarreled more and more violently on this issue during this time, Xie Yongqing began to doubt more and more whether his impulse was worth it - in Yan Tian, and perhaps the ideal of all women, her (they) current boyfriend and future husband may not necessarily have money, but they must have self-confidence, a sense of responsibility, and self-motivation, it seems that only in this way can two people live happily together for a long time and forever. But Xie Yongqing is very self-aware that he is not this kind of person, he and Yan Tian think about things in their heads are completely different, Yan Tian has even begun to plan the problem of their children going to primary school, but Xie Yongqing is just thinking that the results of today's experiment are a little abnormal, it seems that his parents have given him consideration of what to do if he can't get through the downfall in the future, but Xie Yongqing is thinking about how to live better today.

As for the mortgage, Xie Yongqing didn't even think about this possibility in the biggest nightmare - he couldn't imagine what it would be like to be forced to work by a loan every month in the future, which in Xie Yongqing's opinion is to find a pair of handcuffs for himself to tie up, not to mention that according to his current income, he may not be able to repay the loan at all, even if he is successfully admitted to the doctorate, according to his plan for himself, it will not be much better to get the project, Xie Yongqing has been concerned about the research of high-risk viruses is difficult to get funding in China, Because it is all strictly controlled by the state - he can almost imagine the possible day, even if his family does not deliberately exert pressure, he will unconsciously weigh between ideals and reality.

In fact, according to his current conditions, he should not fall in love at all, which not only distracts him in life, but also makes him boring at work - Xie Yongqing even thinks that he is busy in the laboratory for less than 100 yuan a day, so what's the point of continuing like this? Have you been wrong all along? After reading books for so many years, is it just for this money to live?

But this idea is just like a spark fleeting, staring at the mice in the quarantine box, imagining that the viral RNA strand is constantly replicating itself in their bodies, the cells are like factories hijacked by a group of terrorists, imagining that the smallest life form in nature is increasing rapidly at an exponential growth rate, imagining that the immune system in the animal body begins to play a role and resists stubbornly, imagining that life is precisely this microscopic cruel struggle, and finally this colorful world is born. How could all this not make sense? Isn't this the life I've always looked forward to and enjoyed in it? Isn't life supposed to be for what you like?

5.57, Xie Yongqing unconsciously fiddled with his mobile phone, browsing the address book over and over again, and finally stopped at the word Yan Tian, he had a lot of words brewing in his mind, and wanted to muster up the courage to say it in one breath, but in the end he still didn't, just in this hesitation, time jumped by second after second, 5.58, 5.59.

"Pong". The door rang at this time, Xie Yongqing breathed a sigh of relief, stood up and went to open the door.

……

"Why do you seem to be out of your mind lately," Professor Liu glanced at him at the door and said, then walked straight into the dormitory, sat down on the edge of the bed, picked up a few printed papers piled on the bed, looked at them, and said, "It's the same in the laboratory, I've been distracted a few times, is there something going on at home?" ”

"It's okay," Xie Yongqing shook his head, and he didn't even have the intention of hiding the disappointment in his eyes, "Maybe I slept less at night." ”

"Now is the time for you to lay the foundation, what are you doing so hard, you should pay more attention to standardization and learning in the laboratory, don't think about innovation all day long, the most important thing to engage in scientific research is to be patient, serious, step by step, and accumulate steadily." Professor Liu repeated a few more mantras, changing the documents in his hand as he spoke, and finally his movements stopped.

"What is this?" Professor Liu pointed to the issues of Materials Science and Technology pressed under the sheets and asked, "What tricks are you going to do?" Didn't you say last time that your dissertation direction was the flu? How to relate to the material, the most important thing to do research is to determine the direction......"

The old man is this problem, maybe the leader is used to it, maybe it's because of his old qualifications, his mouth is like a flood when he talks, and he doesn't know when it will stop, Xie Yongqing can only take the time to interject a few words of explanation: "Just take a look by the way and distract your attention." ”

"Just take a look?" The old man obviously didn't have this to fool, "Just look at it and still need to take an electron microscope?" ”

This sentence made Xie Yongqing's back break out in a cold sweat almost all of a sudden: "How do you know ......?"

"Is there anything I don't know about the whole school," Professor Liu smiled, and said after seeing that Xie Yongqing's face was wrong, "The progress of your thesis is so slow, and the direction has not been decided until now, I can't even see what you are doing?" Not to mention that you're still in my name. ”

"I've basically decided on the topic, but I haven't had time to tell you yet," Xie Yongqing didn't even know what he was talking about, "It's about flu mutations, and I can just use some of the data in this project." ”

Professor Liu stretched out a hand and put it in front of Xie Yongqing: "Where are the materials?"

Xie Yongqing's face changed: "...... What material? ”

"What else could there be," Professor Liu smiled kindly and kindly, but in Xie Yongqing's opinion, it was simply cold, "It's the material sent to make the film...... The experiment should still be done secretly outside of school, and it will be kept secret from me, this kid. What can I figure out for you! After all, the conditions of our school are limited, and I can help you send them to the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and it will be easy for you to apply for programs in the future...... Don't worry about this now, it's not too late to concentrate on your PhD thesis before thinking about it. ”

Xie Yongqing is a fool and will not believe this set of nonsense, when he chose the doctoral supervisor, he had already learned about this Professor Liu in detail, and he thought that he still knew something about him, and he chose to take the doctoral examination with him because he had a relatively strong relationship in all aspects of the domestic biological academic community, and there might be a better development - but on the other hand, Xie Yongqing could naturally see that Professor Liu could still insist on publishing one or two high-quality papers in important foreign academic journals every year, or even more in important foreign academic journals, And these papers are in the name of joint research with several students with him, of course, the first author must be him, Xie Yongqing, who has been with him for more than a year, naturally knows that this Professor Liu doesn't seem to be too interested in the laboratory, so his papers ......

Not to mention in China, even abroad, it is common for teachers to take students' research results as their own, students' scientific research resources are limited, just like Xie Yongqing, making a film has to be hung under the old man's project name, if you go to the program yourself, then the monkey year and Ma Yue will not be able to take their turn, if this kind of thing really makes trouble, it is not clear to themselves - the old man is okay, said in front of him, this shows how much he can bargain, from the meaning of the old man's words, as long as he turns a blind eye, The doctoral dissertation is estimated to be fine, if you encounter someone with a black heart, and publish it first without saying a word, then you will really not be able to cry at that time.

If this matter is only related to Xie Yongqing himself, he has no better choice at the moment, at most he will pay back the price, for example, he is living in difficulty and needs more subsidies, squeeze more oil and water out of the old man's project, and then try to find various reasons to delay the progress in the middle, and it is best to delay it until he graduates with a doctoral defense in two years - to ensure that the other party will not regret it, and then drag it out for a few more years. But now this is not only Xie Yongqing's business, but also his commitment to Han Le, and even Qiao Yiyu's life - although Xie Yongqing doesn't know anything about Qiao Yiyu, he knows that the whole thing is because of himself, and since he promised Han Le, he can't let accidents happen on his side.

"Oh, you said that," Xie Yongqing smiled deliberately, "I don't think it achieved the expected effect, and it just so happened that the project here had just started, so I threw it away." ”

"Thrown?" Professor Liu glanced at him and sneered slightly, obviously he wouldn't believe this kind of nonsense, but he continued to ask, "Then the production process is still there, right?" ”

"No," Xie Yongqing shook his head in disappointment, "I later repeated it a few times according to the original method, mainly evaporation and condensation, but it failed, and then I tried others, but I have not been able to reproduce it, it seems that it was just an accident." ”

"Oh, yes," Professor Liu stared at Xie Yongqing and asked meaningfully, "That's a pity." ”

After saying that, he stood up and walked out the door, opened the door, looked at the time, and said, "It's 6:20, you haven't eaten yet." ”

Xie Yongqing was now confused, and he still wanted to eat, so he just nodded subconsciously.

"Then hurry up and eat, come to the lab early in the evening, and work overtime," said the old man as he stepped out the door with his hands behind his back, "The progress of the project has been a bit slow lately. ”

The door has been open, the window is also open, the wind in the corridor continues to blow to the window through this passage, turning over a lot of materials on the bed, Xie Yongqing is like a pile of meat with bones removed, slowly falling down the bed pole, the wind in Shenhai in March is still so thorough, but Xie Yongqing didn't notice it at all, just subconsciously clenched the mobile phone in his hand, so that his joints were aching faintly.

When he finally regained his consciousness, it was already completely dark, and the teaching building in the distance was lit up with white lights, Xie Yongqing walked to the windowsill, staring blankly at the lawn outside the door, and there were college students who were talking loudly about the details of the game, I don't know why they suddenly remembered Han Le, according to Han Le's own words, his four years of college were equivalent to spending his four years playing games in an Internet café.

When Han Le was fighting in the Internet café, he was afraid that he was eating books in the study room in the distance, and the education Xie Yongqing received from childhood was that as long as he was willing to study hard, he would definitely be rewarded in the future - if he had known that there was such a day as now, would he still do that in the first place?

Unless he is a fool, Xie Yongqing laughed at himself, how many good days he wasted...... While thinking so, he picked up the phone, looked at the interface and stayed in the column of selecting Yan Tian, and chose to dial with a movement of his fingers.

A beautiful song "Jasmine * Lihua" music came from the speaker of the mobile phone, Xie Yongqing took a deep breath of cold air, trying to calm his mind a little, he felt that he should talk to the other party calmly, say all the thoughts he had never said, no matter what the result was, he admitted it - could the situation be worse than now? Xie Yongqing couldn't think of it.

The mobile phone was quickly connected, and Yan Tian's voice came out of it, but it was far less sweet than what he had heard before: "Why are you still calling me?" Don't tell me you didn't see my text messages! Or is your phone down? ”

"I want to talk to you well," Xie Yongqing's voice sounded like a dead man, without a little fluctuation, "That's what I think about the house......"

"What time is it?" Yan Tian asked on the phone.

"It was ...... just now"

"I asked what time it was."

Xie Yongqing let out a miserable laugh out the window, he felt that his last bit of patience had disappeared with Yan Tian's words, and he really took his phone back and looked at it: "6:34." ”

"Well, your watch is not wrong," Yan Tian sneered, "Goodbye." After speaking, he hung up the phone directly, then put the phone on the table, and secretly made up his mind - if Xie Yongqing didn't make enough 40 calls, she would definitely not answer.

But things were unexpected, after waiting for about 10 minutes, the phone was still quiet, and Yan Tian even secretly checked whether the phone was in arrears - it turned out that there was none.

After half an hour, Yan Tian finally couldn't help but call Xie Yongqing back, and the mobile automatic reply told her that the other party had turned off the phone.