Her suspicions seemed to deepen.
Stepping out of the hovercar, they swiped their cards and walked towards the Ancient Earth Plant Cultivation Base of the Academy of Sciences. Lu Wanqing still had questions, but she suddenly remembered that An Zhizhi's father was the current院长 of the Academy of Sciences, and she kept quiet.
A day, neither too fast nor too slow, Lu Wanqing began to follow Yu Nong, watching firsthand how he cultivated Ancient Earth plants, and also looking through the notes of Yu Nong's past experiments. She later obtained all of them and studied them carefully, one by one.
It had to be said that "notes" in the interstellar era were far more advanced than those from the 21st century of the Ancient Earth era. The notes here were merely a continuation of the recording name from the Ancient Earth era. The actual notes contained not only text and analytical explanations but also full video recordings of how to mix soil and nutrients for plant growth, simulate the light, temperature, and humidity of the Ancient Earth era, and how long it took for seeds to germinate, and their growth status after germination, and so on.
However...
"Are all your materials for cultivating honeysuckle mutated honeysuckle?" Lu Wanqing couldn't help but ask.
Yu Nong nodded. "Yes."
Lu Wanqing was silent for a moment. She had looked through notes of over a dozen experiments, and each time, Yu Nong used plants that had already mutated in the interstellar era as the original specimens. He then used a series of techniques to re-edit the genes of the mutated plants and place them in culture dishes, carefully nurturing them and waiting for the plants in the culture dishes to grow.
If the resulting plants did not undergo genetic mutation, they were Ancient Earth plants. If they still contained mutated genes, the experiment failed, and the plants remained mutated.
"What is your standard for determining whether a plant is an Ancient Earth plant?"
"Do you have all the genetic information for Ancient Earth plants?"
Lu Wanqing thought to herself and couldn't help but ask again.
Yu Nong paused for a moment before nodding. "Yes, some do."
Seeing Lu Wanqing's confusion, Yu Nong couldn't help but explain, "Ancient Earth plants didn't become extinct overnight. When people discovered their numbers were dwindling and they were close to extinction, they would activate the endangered Ancient Earth plant protection program to preserve these highly endangered plants. At the same time, they collected their genes. If they eventually went extinct, we would initiate cultivation programs to try and re-cultivate them."
Lu Wanqing's mouth fell open in surprise.
But she quickly remembered something else. Yu Nong had mentioned earlier that honeysuckle wasn't entirely absent from the interstellar era. When Yu Nong and his family were first poisoned, there was honeysuckle, but the quantity was insufficient, and it was all given to Yu Nong. The remaining amount was not enough, which is why Lady Yu's toxin could not be completely cleared.
"Since you can back up genes in advance, didn't you preserve plant tissues in advance? I mean... honeysuckle is propagated by seeds and cuttings. Since you were prepared, you should have also preserved the plant tissues and seeds of non-mutated honeysuckle in advance, right?" Lu Wanqing struggled, her words becoming a bit jumbled as she tried to express her thoughts. She adjusted her emotions before finishing.
"Yes, but the tissues and seeds of genuine Ancient Earth plants are very precious and require an application to obtain. I applied before, but the cultivation failed," Yu Nong said glumly, his mood suddenly dipping.
"Did it mutate?" Lu Wanqing asked.
Yu Nong nodded dejectedly. "Yes. It was fine when it sprouted, but as it grew, it couldn't adapt to the interstellar environment and gradually underwent genetic mutation."
"Can you apply again?" Lu Wanqing couldn't help but ask. She wanted to try as well.
Yu Nong shook his head. "No. Samples of extinct Ancient Earth plants are extremely important. Even researchers at the academician level can only apply once in their lifetime. If it's unsuccessful, they cannot apply again."
Lu Wanqing fell silent.
Yu Nong looked at the experimental records Lu Wanqing was holding and said dejectedly, "I collected these samples from the outside. Although they have mutated, the degree of mutation is very small. If handled well, it might be possible to edit out the mutated genes and re-cultivate non-mutated honeysuckle."
"Then why didn't you extract some tissue from the honeysuckle you cultivated before? Wouldn't that be better for cultivating new honeysuckle?" Lu Wanqing couldn't help but say.
Yu Nong looked at her with a hint of helplessness. He shook his head. "The seedlings were too tender, their tissues lacked regenerative capacity, and seedlings cannot be processed like that. Otherwise, the parent plant would very likely die."
Lu Wanqing thought about it and agreed. Their goal was to cultivate a new honeysuckle. If the honeysuckle died before it could grow, it would be pointless.
"Do you have any mutated honeysuckle vines? Can you give me some? I want to try too," Lu Wanqing said suddenly.
Yu Nong froze. He looked at Lu Wanqing, then after a moment, he nodded. "Okay."
He didn't have samples that had never undergone genetic mutation, but he had plenty of samples with minor mutations, which he had collected himself and used for experiments.
Yu Nong led Lu Wanqing to a large greenhouse where many plants were grown, including honeysuckle. At first glance, it looked similar to the honeysuckle Lu Wanqing remembered.
Yu Nong brought Lu Wanqing to the honeysuckle plants and explained, "These are the honeysuckle with the least degree of mutation that I've found from the outside over the years."
Least mutated, no wonder the difference wasn't significant, Lu Wanqing thought. She squatted down and observed the honeysuckle closely. She then noticed that these honeysuckle plants were indeed slightly different from her memories. Some leaves had slightly off colors, and some leaf textures were a bit unusual.
"If you want to do experiments, you can pick some vines from here to take back for research," Yu Nong told Lu Wanqing.
Lu Wanqing nodded. "Okay."
Although she agreed, she couldn't start immediately as it was getting late.
Lu Wanqing raised her wrist and checked the time on her data-pad. She said to Yu Nong, "Kindergarten is about to let out. I'm going to pick up Shushu."
Yu Nong was slightly taken aback, then nodded. "Alright."
Previously, Yu Nong would also pick up the children from school. However, after Lu Wanqing and Shushu moved out, Yu Nong had to make two trips a day, which was tiring. Lu Wanqing told him not to pick them up in the afternoon anymore, as she could bring them back herself.
Lu Wanqing smiled, glanced at the cluster of honeysuckle in front of her, and said with a smile, "Then I'll be going."
"Okay," Yu Nong said again.
Lu Wanqing left, departed the Academy of Sciences, got into the hovercar, and quickly left.
Inside the Academy of Sciences, An Zhizhi finally came down from the upper floor after seeing Lu Wanqing leave. Yu Nong turned around and met her gaze directly.