Chapter 1144: Interview Under Pressure

When an idol who stands atop the pyramid sets questions, you can bet they’re as hard as the view from up there.

Right off the bat, there’s a wall of text—three detailed case studies about patients in critical condition. And below them, just one brutal question: Right now, the Safe Zone Hospital has only one open ICU bed. Which of these patients should get it?!

She’d reviewed this before… What was that term again…

Back before the calamity, Xia Qing finished her nine years of compulsory education and earned her middle school diploma. Chewing on the end of her pen, she pondered the question seriously, while on the other side of the room, the interview had already moved on to question six.

“If this Evolved Bear is infected with a parasite and needs medicine to recover…” Zhang San placed a freshly printed photo of an Evolved Bear on the table, then held up a picture of the Devastation Snake. “Suppose the bear comes to you for help carrying prey like this—would you lend a hand?”

Crippled Wolf stayed silent, face serious.

Of course not. Crippled Wolf’s hunting skills are top-notch—one snake isn’t going to make a difference. Xia Qing, snapped from her thoughts, decided to skip the first question and read the second.

A 65-year-old patient infected with a deadly Evolution Bacteria. The doctor estimates they’ve got less than three months to live. Their family wants to hide the truth to spare them emotional damage, but the patient keeps asking to know the real situation so they can get their affairs in order. As the attending physician, how would you handle this ethical dilemma?

She was sure she saw this topic in a video before. Which ethical principle was that again…? Xia Qing rolled her eyes up to stare at the ceiling.

“You wouldn’t save it? What if it brings you two Devastation Snakes instead?” Zhang San added another snake photo to the pile.

Crippled Wolf still kept his mouth clamped shut.

Her train of thought derailed, Xia Qing whispered for permission, “Third Brother, can I go upstairs to finish these questions?”

“Nope, you have twenty-five minutes left.”

Hit with unfair treatment, Xia Qing had no choice but to block out distractions, slip into her marksman mode and focus hard on the exam.

Meanwhile, Zhang San grabbed a fresh printout. “Crippled Wolf, look at the three numbers in this picture. Which one is fifty-five?”

Crippled Wolf lowered his head, studied the numbers, and confidently pressed his massive paw down on ‘5105.’

Sure enough, he guessed right. Though this wolf recognized some numbers, Xia Qing’s videos never covered this specific lesson, so he missed out on the logic behind how numbers are made.

Zhang San pulled out another picture, ready for the next question.

Xia Qing finally wrapped up question two and reached the last one. Her face grew even more serious after reading the prompt:

Scientists have used animal tissues to grow artificial ears, allowing patients who lost theirs to undergo ear transplants. Now, some research institutes are raising organs like pancreases, livers, kidneys and hearts inside animals such as Evolved Pigs, Evolved Sheep, Evolved Macaques and Evolved Wolves, trying to solve the shortage of human organs for transplant. Share your views on this kind of research.

“Time’s up. Test is over.” Zhang San stacked the pictures on the table and held out his hand toward Xia Qing.

Xia Qing anxiously handed her unfinished paper to her idol, nerves on edge. “Third Brother, maybe we can have dinner first? After you rest a bit, I’ll finish the test and see you off?”

Zhang San glanced at the blank first question, the second answered in three lines and the third in four. Calmly, he replied, “No need.”

…

No need? Did she pass? Does she still have to study this subject?

She brushed off her confusion, stood up with a grin and headed to the kitchen. “Third Brother, take a break. I’ll make us a couple of cold dishes. Dinner will be ready soon.”

Zhang San watched Xia Qing dash headlong into the kitchen and felt a headache coming on. “Wash your hands!”

“Don’t worry! I’ll wash my hands, disinfect, put on an apron and make sure everything’s perfectly clean.”

Zhang San massaged his temples, eyes landing on Crippled Wolf, who looked up eagerly at him. “Want to take another test?”

Crippled Wolf instantly grinned, flashing his little fangs.

Zhang San couldn’t help but chuckle. He fished out a pen, flipped over the printout and wrote two characters on the back. “Which of these is ‘brain’?”

Crippled Wolf stared at the two choices for a long moment, then looked up at Zhang San, mouth still shut tight.

“Third Brother, Crippled only recognizes standard printed characters.” Xia Qing popped her head out of the kitchen, then vanished just as fast.

Was she saying his handwriting wasn’t clear enough? Zhang San paused for a few seconds, then took out his phone and typed out the two characters before asking again.

Crippled Wolf glanced at the phone, then shuffled upstairs to fetch a bag. Unzipping it, he fished out a stylus, slipped it onto his right paw and tapped the correct answer for ‘brain’ with pinpoint accuracy.

Zhang San…

Very nice!

Excellent!

“Woo—”

Crippled Wolf noticed Zhang San’s sudden burst of intensity and quickly backed away, baring his fangs.

Zhang San took a deep breath to calm himself, then mimicked Xia Qing’s thumbs-up. “Crippled, you did great! You picked the right answer.”

Crippled Wolf glared at Zhang San, looking skeptical.

Zhang San softened his tone, “I was just thinking about something else, not mad at you.”

Xia Qing glanced out from the kitchen and dove straight back in, picking up the pace with the veggies.

Zhang San glanced at the pink laptop and pink phone in the bag, then typed two more characters on his phone and slid it over to Crippled Wolf. “Now, which of these is the ‘wolf’ in Evolved Wolf?”

Crippled Wolf, ever the eager test taker, hesitated only a moment before hobbling over and confidently pointing at the character for ‘fierce.’

Zhang San shook his head. “Wrong. This one is actually ‘wolf.’ You see, the character for wolf has two ears on top—this one just means ‘ferocious.'”

Crippled Wolf studied the ‘fierce’ character thoughtfully, then looked back at Zhang San.

Seeing no explanation was coming, Crippled Wolf went to seek out Xia Qing in the kitchen.

With her sharp ears, Xia Qing caught exactly what Crippled Wolf wanted to ask. “Crippled, you mean our Wolf Pack has a wolf with only one ear and the Queen herself is missing part of hers too, but they’re both Evolved Wolves, right?”

Crippled Wolf flashed his little fangs.

Standing at the kitchen door, Zhang San watched the conversation unfold between Xia Qing and the wolf.

“One Ear and the Queen only lost part or all of their ears after they were injured—they both started out with two, right?”

Crippled Wolf bared his little fangs again.

“All Evolved Wolves are strong and fierce, so of course the word for ‘wolf’ should be even more impressive, right Crippled?”

Crippled Wolf grinned, showing all four of his little fangs.

Xia Qing summed it up: “So, the one with the extra little ‘ear’ on top is the right character for Evolved Wolf.”

Zhang San, ever meticulous, added, “Evolved Wolves born with physical deformities might only have one ear to begin with.”

Xia Qing joined the explanation with a serious nod. “That’s true. There are even humans born with just one ear, but they’re still human. A wolf born with one ear is still an Evolved Wolf too.”

Crippled Wolf seemed to mull this over. He turned back to the living room, opened his laptop and started flipping through videos.

Zhang San watched the wolf hunkered down over the laptop and rubbed his own forehead.

Sensing the danger, Xia Qing quickly piped up, “Third Brother, look how clean these veggies are—I washed them well, right?”

Zhang San asked offhandedly, “What water did you use?”

“For you? Only pure spring water!”

Zhang San…

Alright then.