Siheyuan: I eat melons while doing scientific research

Chapter 1388 Blue Blood (4k)

However, what Lou Xiao'e didn't know was that Gao Zhendong was, in some ways, a human wish-granting machine.

Upon hearing Lou Xiao'e's words, something suddenly flashed through Gao Zhendong's mind.

My brain is itching to learn something new.

Gao Zhendong remembered that there really was such a thing that could meet Lou Xiao'e's expectations. Although it was impossible to use it everywhere because it was a biological product with limited sources, cutting off the source, such as the production plant, was not a problem.

As for how he could remember things that were completely unrelated to Gao Zhendong's major, we have to mention the unique feature of this thing: it's weird!
It looks strange, its name is strange, its pronunciation is strange, its blood is strange, and its effects are strange...

Anyone who has read a science article about this thing once will almost never forget it.

This is the horseshoe crab (hou).
This thing has a peculiar appearance and a strange name. Its blood is blue, and it has a magical property: it is extremely sensitive to bacterial infections. If there is even the slightest contamination, its blood will turn into a gel-like substance. It is very effective!
It is precisely for this reason that the quantity of this substance has decreased over the decades. It is not that we have consumed it all, but rather that it has been drained by blood samples for medical purposes, and this has been happening all over the world.

Even though the quantity has decreased, we are still drawing from them because there is no alternative for the time being.

But that's decades from now. Use and protection are two parallel paths. Let's figure out how to use it first.

Seeing the familiar smile on Gao Zhendong's face, Lou Xiao'e seemed to understand something.

Could it really work?
As Gao Zhendong helped Lou Xiao'e into the car, he said with a smile, "You know what, this might actually work to some extent."

"Really? Do you have a solution?" Lou Xiao'e asked in surprise.

As Gao Zhendong got into the car from the other side, he said, "It's just a possibility. I once heard comrades in the army say that there's a strange animal. If you put its blood in a clean basin, the blood won't change much, but if you put it in a obviously dirty container, it will quickly turn into a semi-coagulated state..."

Gao Zhendong was just talking nonsense; as long as he could pique Lou Xiao'e's interest, that would be enough.

Lou Xiao'e's attention was indeed drawn to his words: "Really? Where did you hear this from? What kind of animal is it?"

Gao Zhendong remained calm and composed: "Comrades from eastern Guangdong eat all sorts of things, so they see more of these strange and unusual things."

Well, for the sake of medical advancement, Gao Zhendong conveniently tricked his comrades in eastern Guangdong. In reality, he didn't know where people from, and it would be a waste to go and investigate.

We feel bad for our comrades in eastern Guangdong.

"Eastern Guangdong...that's the coastal area, right? The seaside area?" Lou Xiao'e's deepest impression of Eastern Guangdong was naturally the coastal part. After all, decades later, when many people think of Eastern Guangdong, they only think of the coastal area, and subconsciously ignore the mountainous areas to the north.

Gao Zhendong nodded: "Yes, that thing is quite strange, and its name is also strange, it's called 'Thick'."

"Thick? Does it look like a thick millstone?" Lou Xiao'e knew nothing about this thing either, mainly because it was too obscure. The image of a thick millstone appeared in her mind, and she couldn't help but laugh.

Gao Zhendong shook his head: "It is somewhat round, but not very thick, it's like this..."

Gao Zhendong wrote the character "鲎" (horseshoe crab) for Lou Xiao'e to see, and then roughly drew it.

"Huh, this thing looks really weird." Lou Xiao'e wrinkled her nose. Gao Zhendong thought to himself, there are plenty of strange things in the sea, like stonefish, which are already as ugly as possible and poisonous, but they are still served on the dinner table, and at a pretty high price.

"It's this thing. Anyway, I think you could investigate the fact that its blood becomes semi-coagulated under certain conditions. Even if you don't find anything, there's no loss. And its blood is blue, isn't that amazing?" If I don't do it myself, the foreigners will, so I might as well do it myself.

At this time, research on horseshoe crab reagent had actually begun abroad in the late 50s, but no results had been obtained yet.

"But where can we find this?" Lou Xiao'e was somewhat intrigued. The blood was blue? That meant its blood was very different from that of ordinary animals. Considering what Gao Zhendong had just said, they might actually make some discoveries if they continued to study it.

Gao Zhendong immediately patted his chest and said, "Leave this to me. I'll get you a few."

In the agricultural sector, a comrade stared blankly at an email sent from the Department of Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry of the National Academy of Sciences.

While fisheries are indeed now under the jurisdiction of the agricultural sector, it's rather strange that the Department of Mathematics, Physics, and Chemistry of the National Academy of Sciences specifically issued a document requesting assistance with this item. This thing has nothing to do with mathematics, physics, or chemistry. Could it be that some science and technology committee member just had a craving? Surely not…

Trivia: Horseshoe crabs are indeed edible, and they're said to taste pretty good. However, eating too many can lead to copper poisoning. As for where the copper comes from, guess why their blood is blue?
Strange as it may be, the matter still needs to be addressed. This is a formal request for assistance, and it must be handled diligently. Perhaps it has something to do with chemistry? Those familiar with horseshoe crabs thought, after all, their blood looks anything but ordinary.

It's just a few horseshoe crabs, no problem, very no problem at all.

To Gao Zhendong and Lou Xiao'e's surprise, almost the next day, they received a large basin of round things that could crawl!
Because one of the four types of horseshoe crabs in the world is distributed in the Bohai Sea and the Hunhai Sea, which are very close! Of course, Gao Zhendong is not wrong to say that the people in eastern Guangdong eat horseshoe crabs, because another type of horseshoe crab, the southern horseshoe crab, is also distributed in eastern Guangdong. Given the abilities of the people in eastern Guangdong, they probably can't escape the fate of being cooked.

In any case, this was something that the National Academy of Sciences specifically requested. As soon as the comrades in the agricultural sector made a phone call, the comrades by the Bohai Bay started making arrangements that very evening, and it was delivered the next day.

"So fast?" The couple were both surprised.

The comrade who delivered the supplies was from the National Defense Committee. He thought to himself, "Why so fast? Don't you even know why?"
Gao Zhendong didn't dwell on it. He stuck his head out into the yard and shouted, "Shazhu! Come here!"

Lou Xiao'e was completely unfamiliar with the anatomy of this thing, and since she needed to draw blood, she figured that the cook, Sha Zhu, was the most professional.

Sha Zhu came over at the sound and was amused. He had to admit, he actually knew how to handle this thing, even though he wasn't familiar with it.

After all, the capital city isn't far from Bohai. As a head chef, when he goes out to prepare banquets for others, he inevitably encounters these strange and unusual things, especially private banquets. He probably knows how to prepare them, but he's not very proficient.

Even at this level, it's still much better than Gao Zhendong and his wife.

"Hey, Zhendong, what made you think of eating this? I have to say, it's pretty good for making horseshoe crab soup, but you can't eat too much of it because it's cooling." The only problem is that there's too much of it, such a big bowl.

Gao Zhendong laughed. This isn't something you'd eat...

No, this thing is useless after we extract its blood. We might as well eat it; it's a way to make use of waste and kill two birds with one stone. Anyway, there's so much of it, eating a few doesn't seem like a bad idea. The blood won't be wasted. We can give the rest to Xiao'e to take to school. Maybe because the breeding methods aren't very mature, we'll have to extract all the blood first.

"Want some? Sure, but you have to do something for me first..."

"I knew it, you never let me get away with anything. So, what is it?"

In the end, the two reached a deal: eating was no problem, but Sha Zhu would be responsible for collecting the blood and also for teaching Lou Xiao'e how to collect the blood.

This thing has three hearts and an open circulatory system, meaning it has no blood vessel network. The internal organs are submerged in blood, which is quite different from the blood collection methods used for cats, dogs, mice, and rabbits.

Sha Zhu was overjoyed: "You should have said so earlier! If you had said so earlier, I would have taught you even if you didn't eat it."

For him, it would be incredibly prestigious to be able to incorporate his culinary skills into his research projects. He still hasn't forgotten the glory he felt when he created self-heating food; it was so exhilarating.

Finally, after several people worked together, they managed to extract two samples of blood and put them into the clean containers that Lou Xiao'e had prepared beforehand.

Then... how did the sample become contaminated?

Gao Zhendong and Lou Xiao'e were still considering when Sha Zhu laughed: "Why bother with that? Watch me! Great job! Great job!"

Banggeng arrived at the sound of his voice, looking at his stepfather: "Uncle, what's up?"

"Go to the toilet in front, get some of the 'golden juice' and drip it inside..."

Holy crap!!! Gao Zhendong couldn't help but exclaim, "What a genius!"
If we're talking about contamination by germs, that place is almost 100%, it's just a little...

"Uncle, isn't this too dirty?" Banggeng looked unhappy. Why is this uncle becoming more and more unreliable?
"Stop talking nonsense, this is your Uncle Gao and Aunt Lou's research project, understand? Go on! I've seen you digging for bait in there when you can't find earthworms while fishing." Sha Zhu exposed Bang Geng's true colors in no time.

Banggeng understood a little bit; he didn't quite understand what the research project was, but he understood that it was about Uncle Gao and Aunt Lou.

"Alright, I'll go right away..." Banggeng picked a straight wooden stick that he could handle in the yard and was about to rush out, but after thinking about it, he couldn't bear to part with it, so he changed to the ugliest and most crooked one.

As we all know, a straight and slender wooden stick is a treasure worth keeping for men from eight to eighty years old.

Lou Xiao'e didn't care at all where this somewhat special "reagent" came from; she was just carefully observing the changes in the horseshoe crab blood in the bottle.

She jumped up when the horseshoe crab blood actually turned into a gel.

"It's really changed! It's really changed!"

While it's not certain that bacteria are the sole cause of horseshoe crab blood clotting, it's at least one possibility. At least this is a starting point, allowing us to continue our research.

"I'll go to the lab right away and try it on the pathogens there!" Lou Xiao'e said confidently. Compared to the golden juice which contained everything, her lab had almost pure pathogen strains.

Gao Zhendong breathed a sigh of relief; he didn't need to search the system anymore. Searching the system would likely have yielded the Johns Hopkins University paper, "A Bacterial Disease of Horseshoe Crabs," published in 1956, but that would have been a waste.

“I remember now, you can look for foreign papers related to horseshoe crabs. I think we saw some related papers when we were writing the Concise Handbook for Primary Care Physicians. However, they were not relevant to our book, so we didn’t go into detail.”

With the help of more official channels such as those of the White Bear, Gallic Empire, and British Empire, as well as the efforts of organizations like Nidec Corporation,
Seeing is believing, and with the support of a research paper, this matter should be able to proceed.

Gao Zhendong did not mention the name of the paper. This kind of thing is so obscure that it is not difficult to find. Moreover, at present, almost all medical papers related to horseshoe crabs are related to this phenomenon.

"Really? Okay, then I'll look for it carefully in a few days." Lou Xiao'e believed Gao Zhendong's memory; if he said he had seen it, then he must have really seen it.

"Don't wait a few days, you can go now..." Gao Zhendong said with a smile.

Lou Xiao'e was about to agree when she suddenly realized something was wrong.

This man's real intention is not what it seems; he's trying to get rid of her! Lou Xiao'e remembered her "mission."

He went to great lengths to get himself out of trouble.

"No, I said a few days is a few days. Hey Master He, can this thing be kept alive?" It's just like fish in the sea, can't it be kept alive for a few days? Besides, if it really needs help, Lou Xiao'e can ask the comrades in the agricultural department for help herself.

Gao Zhendong is very capable, and Lou Xiao'e also has some influence within the system.

"No need for that trouble," Sha Zhu said cheerfully. "Sure, a few days of rest won't hurt. I know how to do that..."

That evening, the two families ate together. The main dish was indeed horseshoe crab soup made by Sha Zhu using several horseshoe crabs that had been bled. Gao Zhendong was alright, but the children ate it with great relish. For Sha Zhu and Qin Huairu's children, as long as it was meat, they didn't care about anything else.
-
Gao Zhendong sat at the doorway, basking in the warm winter sun.

With 65 years approaching, Gao Zhendong's memory became somewhat confused, and many things that originally happened in 65 were brought forward.

Hoping that more things could be brought forward, Gao Zhendong didn't care about the things he had changed, nor did he feel any fear because of them.

History may change, but knowledge will not; it will continue to follow the laws of the world and play its due role.

Today is the last day of his "holiday". Although it is called a holiday, Lou Xiao'e often couldn't resist Gao Zhendong's insistence. Gao Zhendong still did some things, such as compiling the data on clamshell air intakes and sending it to the National Defense Industry Committee. The National Defense Industry Committee will naturally handle the rest.

He still has a lot to do next.

(End of this chapter)