Accident

"Professor Fan, the solvent just changed into a green color. I believe that our hypothesis will soon come true," a researcher excitedly stated while trying to stay calm at the same time.

Fan Ling carefully looked at the solvent and nodded to show her agreement, "Good job, let's take a break before wrapping up. We've been working for a long time."

"You're right," the researcher immediately nodded. "We definitely deserve a break after working overnight, just waiting for this solvent to show the results we've been waiting for."

They had been working on this project for a super long time, adding in many overtime hours just to make sure they would meet the deadline set by the investors. After all, they would lose the investors if they showed no results after a year worth of research and millions spent on materials.

After a fifteen-minute break, they went back to work. This time, they no longer had to stay in the laboratory. Instead, they had to spend the rest of their inputting the data sheets into the computer to print out to show their investors and also write a research article on the results of their project.

The project that they were working on was about genetically modifying willow trees to be able to store more water, allowing for less water usage during dry or drought periods. If one species of plants can be genetically modified, that would mean that other plants with similar deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) can also be replicated and allow for more water storage. This would be incredibly helpful to the agriculture world and for nature conservation as usable water was beginning to get scarcer and scarcer over the years due to climate change.

Naturally, this would not be the only product of their research. Aside from the factor of more water storage, they were also hoping that with this discovery, more companies would be willing to also try to recreate the same thing and cause the population of the earth to want to grow more plants. If more people were willing to put plants in the ground or anywhere, then the earth would be less polluted with the aid of plants and climate change would slow down.

Although the common cause of climate change was carbon dioxide from coal factories and corporations, creating a shift in the minds of moneymakers is much harder than creating a trend in the common population.

As the sunset once again, the researcher asked, "Professor, are you fine on your own?"

"Yes, you can go home. Thank you for your hard work," Fan Ling said while still paying attention to her laptop screen.

The researcher was still a bit worried about leaving Fan Ling to be on her own in the research facility, but he decided against staying to bother her. Fan Ling had always been a loner and preferred to be by herself. If he were to volunteer to stay beside her, she would not be grateful - only annoyed.

With the researcher gone from the office, Fan Ling gave a sigh of relief.

Even though Fan Ling knew that he was trustworthy, she was still a nervous wreck. Fan Ling knew that it was not that she did not want to interact with him nor trust him, but that she could not. She had a psychological reason behind her willingness to stay alone. However, she would never tell anyone her reason.

Looking at the screen in front of her, she estimated that to input all of the data into her laptop would take the entire night. With this, she decided that she would just stay in the facility until nine pm and then leave. Anyways, she had already pulled many all-nighters and now that they were done with their current project, she would just take a vacation.

At nine pm sharp, Fan Ling immediately left her workplace, driving her Mercedes Benz back to her house which was thirty minutes away in a rural area.

Even though her house was in a rural area, this did not mean that the house was a poor little dilapidated house. In fact, she loved the silence so much that she decided to just buy a piece of isolated land and contacted architects to build a house according to her style there.

When Fan Ling unlocked the door and entered her house, she once again sighed. Lately, she had been sighing for an unknown reason.

Unknowingly, she also sighed once again when she walked past the entry room. When she finally caught herself, she shook her head.

'Is it because I'm thirty now that I keep on sighing?' Fan Ling inwardly thought.

For ten years, Fan Ling had remained single with no partner. Even though her life was going well with a nice car, a big house, and a high-paying job, she was still not ready to settle down. Many people had told her previously that as one gets older, so does their wish to settle down.

However, after so many years, Fan Ling still felt that people were untrustworthy for her to living in the same house them. What if they want to kill her just to inherit her wealth? What if they cheat on her? What if… There were too many "what ifs" for her to try to find a partner peacefully.

This did not mean that she never gave dating a try.

Right after graduating from high school in the United States, Fan Ling decided to finally start dating. She did not really know where to start, so she asked an acquaintance to introduce her to someone who was open to the market. From this, she managed to meet a kind man of French origins.

The man was very handsome and had many good habits from what Fan Ling observed. Probably because she saw no red flags from him, she decided to give him the green light.

Although, this proved to be a bad choice. Well, in fact, Fan Ling did not know whether she regretted her choice or not.

Back then, she was much more open and trusting of people. Thus, after breaking up with the man, she went to talk with a friend about her situation. She had wondered whether she made a mistake in accepting the man or not, and she especially made sure to bring out the good and the bad of the man. In the end, the friend told her that she made the mistake of breaking up with the man.

According to the friend, "Ling, there's no such thing as a perfect man in the world! It's called compromise!"

This statement made Fan Ling think very hard, 'Was compromise the only thing that could make a relationship last?'

Curious about the answer, Fan Ling decided to ask her question.

To her disappointment, her friend answered, "Of course. What relationship can last if they can't compromise? Especially the woman."

"Why the woman?" Fan Ling had asked, unable to accept the statement.

"What else? Because the man is the head of the household," the friend had stated. "Besides, do you know how hard it is to find a good man these days?"

After saying all those things, her friend continued stating that someone like her ex-boyfriend was rare. Her friend continuously put down her own feelings to simply support the man despite the fact that her friend had never met the man before.

However, for some reason, Fan Ling could still feel the inequality. She had clearly stated many more bad points about her ex-boyfriend than good points, so why did her friend focus on the few good points?

'Was society so bad that just one good thing can become a blessing now?' Fan Ling wondered.

Coming back to her senses, Fan Ling realized that she had lost herself in remembering her long past.

Shaking her head to wake herself up, Fan Ling asked herself, 'Is it because it's too quiet that I'm losing myself in memories?'

With this thought, Fan Ling decided to go take a night walk in the surrounding area and also take a look at her greenhouse.

This was a normal routine for Fan Ling. Usually, when she was bored or she felt like digesting food that she just ate, she would take a walk in the surrounding area. Of course, she also sometimes came out for a stroll when she felt that she needed to focus on something else for her house always made her reminiscence about the past.

At the same time, she would also always walk toward her greenhouse as it was quite a while away. She had planted a botanical garden leading up to the greenhouse, making her have to always take a fifteen-minute walk every time she wanted to go check up on her plants. To be honest, she hated that the greenhouse was far away, but when everything was built, she decided to plant the garden first instead of placing the greenhouse.

In the end, the greenhouse could only be put a bit farther away as there was no other space and she did not want to take out the flowers in the botanical garden. At the same time, the trees that she planted were a few years old and their roots were firmly spread out already - she did not want her beautiful trees to die due to an accident.

Changing into clothes appropriate for a night walk, Fan Ling strolled alongside the stone path that led to the greenhouse. Breathing in the clean air produced by all the flowers, she felt extremely calm and refreshed. At the same time, she lost the breathlessness that she felt earlier when she entered her own home.

Feeling a bit tired from walking for about five minutes, she decided to take a rest on the bench with a flower arch. Looking up at the sky, she felt that coming back to China seemed to be a good and a bad choice - there were no stars to be seen due to the smoke from all of the industrial companies.

All of a sudden…

A flash of light came from behind her and continued to get brighter and brighter.

Not knowing what the light was, she stood up and turned around…

A big truck had unknowingly sped its way into her garden and was now heading towards her at full speed.

Wanting to avoid the truck, Fan Ling tried to run to the side. However…

For whatever reason… the truck rolled over, smashing all the flowers and her at the same time.

On that night, two people died, alongside the destruction of the beauty of nature.

On the next day, the news reported:

"A semi-truck transporting lumber for a nearby construction was found at Road XXX, in the garden of a famous researcher, Fan Ling. According to officials, the brakes in the semi-truck were faulty, resulting in the driver being unable to slow to make a turn at the intended intersection, causing the driver to head towards Fan's residence. The driver luckily managed to steer the truck towards the garden to lessen the impact of the destruction.

Sadly, the residence owner, Fan Ling, happened to be in the garden at the time, dying from the impact of the truck rolling over alongside the death of the driver. Let us all grieve for one of the greatest of all time researchers in the evolution of our country, Fan Ling."