My abstract plant was exposed by my sister.

As the sun gradually set in the west, everyone packed up their things and returned to the small courtyard of the laboratory to rest.

It's the height of summer, the time when mosquitoes are at their most rampant. They buzz around your ears one minute and bite you the next, making you scratch incessantly and unable to talk properly.

Xiao Zhao had three bite marks on his leg and couldn't stop scratching them.

Wu Tao had a large, bright red bump on his neck.

Liu Xudong fared the worst; he was bitten on the face, and it quickly became red and swollen.

Screaming Sister was also extremely annoyed by the mosquitoes. Her leaves opened and closed, emitting short "ah, ah, ah" sounds, as if she were cursing the mosquitoes.

"Teacher Lin, could you research a plant that can repel mosquitoes?" Liu Xudong said while scratching himself, "There are too many mosquitoes and they're too vicious. Even mosquito repellent isn't very effective."

His face was swollen, and his speech was slurred.

Lin Muyang thought for a moment: "There are quite a few mosquito-repelling plants, but in terms of effectiveness, pyrethrum should be the best."

"What is pyrethrum?" Xiao Kui asked, holding up her phone and leaning closer.

"A plant of the Asteraceae family. Pyrethrin, extracted from its flowers, is neurotoxic to mosquitoes but harmless to humans and animals. In ancient times, it was often used to make mosquito coils."

Everyone couldn't stand it any longer and went back inside. Lin Muyang also stood up: "I'll go to the storeroom to look for seeds."

He went into the greenhouse, turned over the sealed bags on the seed rack, and found a small bag of "pyrethrum".

The seeds were brown and very small, like sesame seeds. He poured ten seeds into a petri dish to let them "wake up" first, and then began to prepare the induction solution.

Xiao Kui followed him in: "Family, my brother is starting to get mosquito-repellent plants! Pyrethrum!"

"I want to buy it."

"Could the guy with the facial paralysis come up with a plant that makes mosquitoes want to shut up?"

"No, let the mosquitoes die."

Lin Muyang prepared an inducing solution with a concentration of only 10% of the standard value. He only wanted a pyrethrum that could repel insects.

He carefully poured the light pink liquid into a small spray bottle and sprayed it evenly onto the seeds.

The seeds turned light pink after being moistened with the liquid, as if they had been dyed.

"Let it sit for two hours." He placed the petri dish in the incubator and set the temperature: "Sow the seeds this afternoon."

The big orange cat squatted on the control panel, looked at the incubator, then at Lin Muyang, and meowed.

Lin Muyang patted its head: "If you dare to cause trouble again, I'll break your legs."

The orange cat meowed again, glanced at him disdainfully, raised its head, and walked away haughtily.

Lin Muyang sighed and turned to look at the middle finger guy.

The cactus spines that were originally straight immediately bent down, forming countless perfect middle fingers.

"..."

The status of the laboratory is self-evident.

The video of Little Sweetheart being pricked with needles by a bitter orange peel went viral online for three days.

Her followers increased from 500,000 to 1.5 million, and the number of viewers in her live stream tripled.

Although she was embarrassed on the spot, she has firmly established herself in the "reckless and disastrous" category.

When someone becomes popular, others will naturally follow suit.

The next day at noon, the group of people who had finished their work were resting in the courtyard when a white Porsche was parked at the entrance of the research institute.

The car door opened, and a young man wearing a floral shirt, sunglasses, and with half a pound of hair gel in his hair stepped out.

The watch on his wrist gleamed in the sunlight, and two photographers followed behind him, one holding a stabilizer and the other carrying a light.

The scale of the event was more than ten times larger than that of the little sweetheart.

As he approached the wall, he kept saying, "Challenge the most authentic suicide challenge on the entire internet! Even more ruthless than Little Sweetheart! Here comes the thorny thorn!"

Xiao Kui was live-streaming the argument between Screaming Sister and Middle Finger Brother in the yard when she heard the noise and walked to the gate. She was stunned for a moment when she saw the scene, and then silently pointed her phone camera at the outside of the yard wall.

"Family members, another one's asking for trouble. Does anyone know them?"

The comments section instantly flooded in:

"Isn't that Ah Hao, the live-streaming e-commerce host?"

"The one who sells counterfeit goods?"

"Yes, that's him!"

"What's he doing here? Is he here to pick bitter oranges too?"

"They came because Little Sweetheart became popular. Maybe they'll come again in the future."

Ah-hao spoke loudly into his camera, "Family! What Little Sweetheart can do, I, Ah-hao, can do too! And I'll be even more authentic! I never play games!"

He patted his chest in front of the camera, the fake gold chain on his chest swaying back and forth.

"Today I'm going to try pricking this bitter orange peel thorn myself! If I don't cry, I lose! If I cry, I win! Anyway, I'm guaranteed to profit!"

He took a deep breath, walked to the wall covered with bitter orange peel, and extended his right index finger.

Then it retracted. It extended its left index finger again, then retracted it again.

The photographer whispered, "Brother Hao, are you going to get it or not?"

Ah Hao glared at him: "What's the rush? I'm preparing."

He took a minute to mentally prepare himself, then shouted his slogan three times into the camera: "A real man is not afraid of thorns."

Xiao Kui watched all this from behind the wall, but did not step forward to stop it. She knew she had brought this upon herself, and there was no danger to her life anyway.

Ah-hao glanced at Xiao-kui, grinned, and revealed a set of white teeth—which were later proven to be porcelain-coated, costing a thousand yuan each.

"Don't worry, everyone. I served in the military and am a regular at the gym; I have a very strong will. The army taught me two words: Fearless!"

Xiao Kui whispered to her camera, "The last person who served in the military is still talking about 'other people' now."

Comment: "Da Liu: Don't I have any pride?"

"Da Liu: (╯‵□′)╯︵┻━┻"

"Haha, please let him go, he just ran ten kilometers."

"They practically had the word 'misery' etched on their foreheads."

Big Orange had somehow slipped out of the yard and was squatting on the wall, its yellow nose pointing in Ah Hao's direction, its tail wagging slowly.

It tilted its head and looked at Ah Hao with a contemptuous expression.

The expression roughly translates to: "Another embarrassing fool. Let's see how long you can last."

Although the guy with the middle finger wasn't on the wall, he could still see what was happening here from the lab window sill across the wall.

Even before Ah Hao entered the arena, Middle Finger Guy had already raised his finger in his direction.

Ah-hao pressed his finger against the thorns of the bitter orange peel and pushed hard; the extremely sharp thorns easily pierced through. A drop of blood oozed from between his fingers.

He smiled broadly at the camera: "I don't really feel anything—"

Before he could finish speaking, his smile slowly disappeared, and the corners of his mouth drooped down, like a face changing.

His eyes became vacant, his pupils dilated, and he went from a spirited internet celebrity to a pile of mud.

He squatted down and buried his face in his knees.

The floral shirt was crumpled up, and the hair, slicked back with hairspray, was half flat, as if it had been ravaged.

The gold chain slipped out of her collar and hung on the ground, the plastic beads hitting the stone with a soft "click".

The two photographers stood frozen in place, holding their equipment, unsure whether to continue shooting.

One whispered to the other, "Should we turn it off or not?" The other gritted his teeth and said, "No, we shouldn't miss out on this data."

"I..." Ah-hao's voice began to tremble, choked with sobs, like a child whose lie had just been exposed: "I've been such a failure as an online influencer, all those watches I sold in my live streams... were fake..."