"Alright," Ye Shiyuan said and then he wrap an arm around Rong Xingyu. "Let’s go first. We’ll pack a portion and bring it back for him later."
Rong Xingyu nodded at that and left together with Ye Shiyuan.
"Yinhu really cares a lot about the final assignment your brother gave this time," Ye Shiyuan explained as they walked. "But honestly, who wouldn’t? The top two get the chance to visit his lab and study there. At any school, people would fight tooth and nail for that."
Ye Shiyuan shrugged and said regretfully, "I definitely don’t stand a chance. When the time comes, I’ll just watch you and Yinhu and the rest of the academic gods battle it out."
Rong Xingyu: "..."
Rong Xingyu smiled slightly. For an undergraduate student, being able to visit a lab of that level really was an incredible opportunity.
Of course, he was no exception.
"How’s your data organization coming along? I feel like your efficiency has always been really high."
Thinking about his own mess of experimental data, Ye Shiyuan could not help sighing.
"Almost done," Rong Xingyu thought about his own schedule. "There’s basically just the final wrap-up left."
"I’m so jealous!" Ye Shiyuan wailed dramatically. "I don’t even know when I’ll ever get mine done! These damn data sets are really giving me a headache!"
Rong Xingyu said, "Then... good luck?"
However, what Rong Xingyu did not expect was that later that afternoon, just as he was preparing to do the final wrap-up work, he discovered that there seemed to be a problem with his experimental data.
...
Rong Xingyu and Ye Shiyuan chatted as they walked and heading back toward the laboratory.
Just after turning past the stairwell, they ran into Pan Yinhu.
"Hey, Yinhu!" Ye Shiyuan called out to him.
Hearing his name, Pan Yinhu stopped. He turned around and when he saw Ye Shiyuan and Rong Xingyu, he smiled. "You’re back."
Rong Xingyu walked over and handed the packed meal he was holding to Pan Yinhu.
"Thanks," Pan Yinhu said as he accepted it, then walked together with them toward the laboratory.
"You weren’t in the lab just now?" Ye Shiyuan scratched the back of his head in confusion when he saw that the lab lights were all off.
Pan Yinhu replied softly, "Yeah. Professor Jiang suddenly called for me earlier, so I went over there for a bit. I only just finished and came back now."
Ye Shiyuan burst out laughing. He patted Pan Yinhu on the shoulder and teased him, "Who told you to be Professor Jiang’s prized disciple? That old man’s always like this, he loves making people run errands for him."
"Isn’t that the truth," Pan Yinhu said helplessly, then could not help laughing as well.
Hearing this, a faint smile also appeared on Rong Xingyu’s face.
Worried that the smell of food would linger in the laboratory, Pan Yinhu hastily ate his lunch out in the hallway.
In fact, the packed meal was quite generous.
Rong Xingyu had deliberately chosen dishes that suited Pan Yinhu’s taste.
Rong Xingyu and Ye Shiyuan returned to the laboratory first.
After a brief rest, Rong Xingyu planned to continue with the final stage of organizing his data.
But at that moment, Rong Xingyu suddenly realized that something seemed to be wrong with his data.
If he remembered correctly, the last value he had recorded before leaving in the morning was not the one he was seeing now.
Rong Xingyu frowned slightly.
He opened all of his previously recorded experimental data and began reviewing them from the beginning.
After quickly going through everything once, the strange feeling in Rong Xingyu’s heart grew even stronger.
To prevent any loss or damage to the data, Rong Xingyu had always backed it up while recording.
Yet when he located his backup files and compared them with the data in hand, Rong Xingyu was shocked to discover that they were exactly the same.
Rong Xingyu’s brow furrowed even deeper.
His fingers slid across the screen as he once again reviewed the previously recorded data.
Something was not right, the more he looked at this data, the more something about it felt off.
Although Rong Xingyu did not possess an exaggerated photographic memory, he was certain that there was something different about this set of data compared to what he had originally recorded.
Yet he could not find any issues at all in the backups.
Should he trust his own intuition, or trust the backup files?
Rong Xingyu lowered his gaze, the shadow cast by his lashes obscuring his eyes.
It did not take long before Rong Xingyu made a decision.
He would start over from the beginning.
Science was rigorous by nature.
There should be no room for a mindset of "it should be correct" or "it should be fine."
Since there was something strange about the data, then he would dig out every single oddity hidden within it!
A soft sound came from the doorway and Rong Xingyu looked up.
It was Pan Yinhu who had finished eating and was walking in from outside.
He tidied up the lunch box, then very lightly tossed it into the trash can.
When he noticed Rong Xingyu looking at him, Pan Yinhu smiled and nodded at him.
Rong Xingyu’s expression did not change, but he quickly withdrew his gaze.
Earlier, when he and Ye Shiyuan had left the laboratory, only Pan Yinhu had remained behind.
If the data had truly been tampered with, could it have been Pan Yinhu who did it?
Rong Xingyu was unwilling to speculate about others with malice.
Especially when it involved a roommate with whom he had been spending almost every waking moment during this period.
Rong Xingyu still suppressed the suspicion deep in his heart.
Right now, his most urgent priority was to complete the assignment before the deadline.
And the organization of experimental data was extremely tedious, with a very heavy workload.
Rong Xingyu sighed quietly to himself. The next few days were bound to be busy again.