Conducting medical experiments relies heavily on small animals like laboratory mice and domestic rabbits.

Lab mice raised artificially adapt poorly to their environment; they cannot tolerate cold or heat, require clean, dust-free living spaces, and demand strict regulation of temperature, humidity, and fresh, pure air, with minimal noise and timed ventilation—they are exceedingly delicate.

Therefore, Wang Zhuo trained two assistants, Meng Shengnan and Meng Shengdi, specifically for animal husbandry.

Although the conditions were excellent and money was no object—the mice feeding was automated, allowing them to survive well even if no human showed up for three days—many procedures still required manual handling. The Meng sisters had grown up in the countryside, having raised everything from chickens, ducks, and geese to dogs and pigs; taking care of a few racks of mice was hardly challenging for them.

Wang Zhuo’s mouse facility was situated right next to his laboratory, covering about twenty square meters, housing over two hundred mice. The breeding rate of these creatures is astonishingly fast; this small facility alone was sufficient to supply all his experimental needs.

Engaging in the "laboratory mouse" profession is truly a high-risk, low-reward endeavor. Indeed, over the last few days, the mouse population had noticeably declined again. Even though Wang Zhuo possessed x-ray vision, allowing him to observe the condition of the white mice in minute detail—often saving him the trouble of drawing blood for assays—countless mice had heroically perished in his experiments, becoming martyrs batch after batch.

Consequently, after failing to summon the women for a moment of solace, Wang Zhuo made a call and summoned the two sisters. Today's task: breeding the little mice!

Girls raised in the countryside mature early; having seen a rooster mount a hen at three and a dog mounting at five, Meng Shengnan had even witnessed the spectacle of pigs mating. She felt no shame whatsoever regarding the ** of lab mice; on the contrary, her meticulous and careful handling made her the kind of exceptional apprentice that even medical school professors couldn't find with a lantern.

Wang Zhuo's mouse facility employed a cyclical breeding method: one stud male would cohabitate with one female for ten days before being transferred to another cage to live with the next female for another ten days, continuing this cycle until the stud male grew old and feeble, unable to fulfill his glorious duty, at which point he would be retired. "Sister, do you think humans are like rats too, in that the allocation of male and female resources is unbalanced?" Meng Shengdi suddenly posed a sophisticated question while examining a young male mouse.

"I don't know what you mean," her sister, Meng Shengnan, casually shook her head, placing a healthy female mouse into a clean cage and returning it to the rack.

"Look," Meng Shengdi glanced toward the outside, seeing Wang Zhuo engrossed in stirring a test tube in the laboratory, paying no attention to their area. She spoke quietly, "The breeding ratio for the stud mice is one male to five females. One male gets five females as wives. Sometimes, when the demand for young pups increases, the ** cycle shortens by a few days, making it one to seven or even one to nine. It's unfair! Those males who don't qualify as studs are simply executed by Wang Zhuo with a single injection!" Only after this explanation did Meng Shengnan understand the imbalance she was referring to. She smiled faintly and replied, "What fairness is there? In our Taoyuan, don't we also have more women than men? If Father wasn't the village chief, he'd have three or four wives too."

"But in big cities, a man can only have one wife," Meng Shengdi, clearly already immersed in modern life and showing nascent feminist leanings, expressed resistance toward one man possessing multiple women.

Meng Shengnan’s thinking, however, was not as "progressive" as her sister’s. She let out a dismissive snort and declared, "Only incapable men A have just one wife."

"Uh..." The younger sister, who had already shot up nearly five centimeters taller than her elder, was instantly choked into silence. Speechless.

"Take these lab mice, for example." Meng Shengnan, whose figure was developing towards maturity, looked up at her sister and explained, "Being able to grow a healthy, strong body is their capability. Those that don't meet the standard are drowned in the water bottle immediately. Only those that pass can live a little longer before ultimately dying in the experimental chamber. Only the strongest individuals have the right to mate with the opposite sex and propagate the next generation. This is called natural selection; the weak are simply eliminated. In this regard, humans and mice are no different." Meng Shengdi pouted dismissively but couldn't formulate a rebuttal to her sister’s argument. Though unconvinced in her heart, she lacked the skill to spar verbally with her sister.

Seeing her sister rendered speechless but still unconvinced, Meng Shengnan felt it necessary to offer further instruction. She pointed to several young pups in a nearby cardboard box and said, "It’s the same for the females. Even though their selection rate is five or six times higher than the males', those with poor conditions are still eliminated. These rejected ones would have loved to be chosen and enjoy a few more comfortable days, but they don't even have the qualification." Having said that, she walked over to scrub the mouse cages. Meng Shengdi stared blankly for a moment, then suddenly grasped the meaning: her sister was warning her that if she didn't achieve something, she wouldn't have a good life in the future!

The girl immediately felt slighted. She thought to herself, I am the campus beauty, after all. Even if I'm often ridiculed by classmates for my ignorance, I shouldn't end up unwanted by anyone! What kind of talk is that, criticizing me by criticizing the mice?

She was about to angrily confront her sister when Wang Zhuo walked over and knocked on the glass window separating the laboratory from the mouse facility, activating the intercom.

"Shengdi, bring me a set of rats." Meng Shengdi quickly agreed, "Oh! Coming right away!"

She nimbly prepared nine lab mice meeting the standard, loaded them into a cage, and delivered them to Wang Zhuo.

After Wang Zhuo accepted the mice, he began injecting them one by one and making notes. She watched intently, assisting Wang Zhuo in placing the injected mice into separate glass chambers.

Once Wang Zhuo finished everything, she giggled and pointed at a mouse in one of the glass tanks. "Brother Wang Zhuo, why is this mouse's fur all gone? It looks so ugly." Wang Zhuo turned, glanced over, and smiled, "That set of experiments failed, but this one, for some reason, survived the longest. I'm waiting for it to die so I can record the final data."

"Oh..." Meng Shengdi joked cheerfully, "Then you better record it carefully. Maybe you can invent a hair removal lotion because of this mouse. I heard the invention of Viagra was a complete fluke."

Wang Zhuo nearly fumbled and knocked over the test tube rack, looking at her with a mixture of amusement and disbelief. "Where did you hear about Viagra?"

"Upstairs," Meng Shengdi giggled, showing no blush whatsoever. "Am I wrong? Wasn't Viagra originally intended to treat cardiovascular disease, and unexpectedly ended up treating a different ailment?" Wang Zhuo looked at her with surprise, wondering if she understood the symptoms Viagra was meant to treat. However, the girl's sly expression quickly made him dismiss that thought—she understood perfectly!

Wang Zhuo scratched his head. He looked at the girl standing before him. She was still in her adolescent phase, her body having just completed the transition from child to young woman, standing around 1.62 or 1.63 meters tall, weighing perhaps eighty jin—like a crisp, delicate bean sprout.

Good for lifting, but not much substance.

Comparing her to Meng Shengdi, Wang Zhuo realized the two sisters seemed to be developing in the direction of Hong Kong's most famous female singing duo. The elder was heading toward (charming/sultry) and gentle; the younger was growing taller, her personality more mischievous and bright, and even her figure seemed to be the type that wasn't overly convex in the front or protruding in the back, comparable to Anqi.

After a moment's thought, he asked, "Shengdi, you're almost fifteen, right? Has your birthday passed yet?" "Almost, half a month to go," Meng Shengdi replied while bending down to observe the row of lab mice on the experiment table, which displayed a variety of strange conditions.

Those mice had all been recently injected by Wang Zhuo. In reality, some had already died and been disposed of. The remaining ones occasionally convulsed, some were lethargic and unwilling to move, some were as active as the Monkey King, while others acted as if nothing had happened, showing normal behavior.

The girl propped her chin in her hands, leaning on the table. Her slender body was lost inside the oversized white lab coat, offering little to see. Her small buttocks had not yet become plump with age and remained quite androgynous.

Wang Zhuo chuckled softly. The people of Taoyuan followed the custom of counting age from birth; Meng Shengdi’s fifteenth birthday wasn't until half a month from now. Calculated that way, she wasn't even fourteen yet!

No wonder he hadn't felt any strong impulses toward her—it was due to her age... a young man whose desires had recently become more greedy explained this to himself while simultaneously recalling the unrestrained scenes he had witnessed while soaking in the hot springs in Taoyuan.

"Hmph!"

As his body rapidly reacted, he quickly cleared his throat, halting the recollection, and said to Meng Shengdi, "Go back and help your sister with her work. The laboratory environment isn't good for growing children; don't stay here too long."

Having sent away the green fruit that was appealing to look at but not yet ready to eat, Wang Zhuo adjusted his trousers, which had become slightly uncomfortable from standing up straight, allowing the tension to ease vertically, feeling some relief.

A jingle of wind chimes sounded, followed by the crisp sound of light high heels approaching. Wang Zhuo swept his vision outward with his x-ray eyes and immediately brightened; the beautiful secretary had finally returned!

"Half an hour late!" With his hands in his pockets, he walked out of the lab, smiling as he gestured toward the beautiful secretary.

Fu Xinran's delicate face was dewy and tender from the sweat. She offered a charming smile and held up the paper bag in her hand, "I brought back ice cream." A moment later, the four of them were gathered on the sofa eating ice cream. Fu Xinran had bought a large amount, and the surplus was stored in the freezer. The weather was dreadfully hot; the ice cream she bought at the base of the building had practically melted by the time she reached her office via the elevator—it would have turned to soup if she had been a few minutes later.

"What about Mei Shi? How did you manage him?" Wang Zhuo asked with a smile.

Fu Xinran hesitated, gesturing with her eyes toward Wang Zhuo, indicating it was inconvenient to speak in front of the two young girls.

Wang Zhuo’s eyes flickered. He pulled her into the archive storage compartment, confirmed the sisters outside couldn't hear them, and urged her to speak quickly.

Fu Xinran glanced outside, then leaned in and whispered with an ambiguous expression, "I took him for a tour of our company's business division. He was completely stunned, and then I told him, 'I'm going to support you!'"

"Ah?" Wang Zhuo was torn between laughter and tears. "What did he say?"