On the Ark.

Lin Ye nodded, interrupting Lan Du: "I understand."

Blue Poison raised her head, looking at Lin Ye with some confusion: "What do you understand?"

“Raise your hand,” Lin Ye said. “I’ll tell you what to do.”

Blue Poison put down her teacup and slowly raised her hand: "Is that so?"

The next second, Lin Ye stepped forward and grasped Lan Du's hand.

Blue Poison was stunned, her eyes wide as she stared blankly at Lin Ye.

Lin Ye smiled and said, "Blue Poison Operator, now you have the first person who dares to approach you."

Chapter 297 This cake is delicious, who made it?

Lin Ye was woken up by the ringing of the telephone.

He groggily picked up the phone and answered it. The next second, the irritable female voice instantly snapped him back to reality.

"Dr. Lin Ye! Shouldn't you get up?!"

Lin Ye was startled and almost threw his phone away.

“Zi, Zilan?” He recognized the voice.

"It's me," Zilan said irritably. "I didn't want to make this call, after all, I know you only got back to the island early yesterday morning, and you should get some rest. But what's with you resting until 5:30?! I'm off work in half an hour, shouldn't you consider handing over your work in Shelag to me?!"

It's 5:30?!

Lin Ye was startled and quickly took his phone away to check the time.

Holy crap, it's true, he actually slept all day again.

Wait... why use "again"?

"I'm so sorry." Lin Ye quickly got up and said while putting on his clothes, "I'll come down to find you right away, in ten minutes! No, five minutes will do."

"Try to hurry up." Zilan sighed. "You and Susuluo returned to the island at the same time, so why is Susuluo still able to go to work normally? She handed in her report to me first thing this morning, and even went to your office and knocked on the door several times, but you didn't open it. I had no choice but to make this call because Ansel said you didn't sleep in the dormitory at all last night."

Compared to Su Suluo, Lin Ye felt even more guilty. So after hanging up the phone, he put on his clothes in less than thirty seconds, grabbed his backpack and rushed out. But when he opened the door, he saw a small box outside and almost stepped on it. Fortunately, he managed to stop in the end.

"What's this?" Lin Ye picked up the box with some curiosity, opened it, and was quite surprised to see what was inside. "A cake?"

Inside the box was a small blue cake, thoughtfully accompanied by a plastic fork.

Lin Ye immediately thought of the cake's origin, because currently, besides him, only Lan Du lived on this floor. Moreover, he had a long talk with Lan Du late into the night yesterday, and Lan Du had mentioned to him that she loved making cakes, but almost no one dared to eat them, fearing they might be poisonous.

I see... So that's why it was sent here?

Lin Ye looked at the cake and pondered.

Was Blue Poison testing his attitude last night?

No, that's not right, it shouldn't be. Lin Ye's impression of Lan Du wasn't that of a cunning girl; this should just be simple kindness. Thinking of this, Lin Ye couldn't help but smile, then ran to Lan Du's room, knocked on her door, and said, "Thank you for the cake, I'll definitely finish it."

After saying that, without waiting for Blue Poison's response, he quickly left the fourth floor with the cake.

A minute later, Lin Ye, disheveled and unkempt, carrying a backpack in one hand and a cake in the other, rushed into Zilan's office, startling Zilan who was looking at documents.

"What are you doing?!" Zilan glared at Lin Ye.

"Sorry, sorry, sorry." Lin Ye sat down in the chair. "I overslept."

"I know you overslept," Zilan said irritably. "Since you've already skipped work, couldn't you have finished getting ready before coming down? You're one of Rhodes Island's diplomats, after all, you represent Rhodes Island when you're out in public..."

Lin Ye didn't know when Zilan had started doing the work of the Dean of Students. But there was nothing he could do; after all, she was Lin Ye's superior, and even if he didn't want to, he could only listen quietly, since he was in the wrong.

Fortunately, Zilan wasn't a professional academic affairs director, so she didn't ramble on for hours. After talking for a short while, she changed the subject to work.

“I’ve already seen the work report about Shelag from Sussuro. To be honest, I never expected you to be such a jinx.” Zilan rubbed her temples in annoyance. “You can even cause trouble in a place like Shelag.”

Lin Ye was speechless: "What do you mean I caused trouble? I'm clearly the victim, I was clearly the one who was passive, okay?"

“I know, I’ve already read the report, I was just venting,” Zilan said. “But although the process seemed arduous, the result was good. After all, you’ve already forged a deep friendship with the president of Karan Trading… However, you should report this kind of thing to Amiya; diplomatic issues are not my responsibility.”

Lin Ye nodded: "I understand."

"Then you should know what I'm responsible for," Zilan leaned forward slightly. "Tell me, what's your final assessment of Operator Lappland?"

"Hmm... I was just about to tell you about this too." Lin Ye put down the cake in his hand and then rummaged through his backpack for Lappland's internship agreement.

Zilan noticed Lin Ye's cake: "What is this?"

Lin Ye answered without looking up, "It's a cake someone gave me."

"Brought back from Kjerag?"

"How could that be? Can a cake last that long? Someone else made it for me."

“Hmm…” Zilan opened the box and picked up one of the plastic forks. “Let me try it.”

"Hey."

"Hey, why? I've been waiting for you all day. What's wrong with eating a little bit of your cake?" Zilan glared at Lin Ye. "It's not like I ate it all."

Lin Ye said somewhat helplessly, "Alright, don't regret it."

"Why would I regret it?" Zilan picked up a small piece with her fork, put it in her mouth, and quickly narrowed her eyes. "Wow, it's so delicious! It's much better than what we get in the cafeteria."

"is it?"

Lin Ye was also hungry, after all, he hadn't eaten for more than ten hours, so he picked up his fork, forked a small piece and put it in his mouth.

"Wow, this is really good!" Lin Ye couldn't help but exclaim. "It's definitely much better than what's served in the cafeteria."

"Right, right. Hey, stop eating and hurry up and find my internship agreement with Lappland." Zilan ordered Lin Ye while eating.

“It’s been found.” Lin Ye placed Lappland’s internship agreement on the table. “I do have some things I want to say to you about Operator Lappland.”

"Tell me, that's why I called you here." Zilan ate another small piece of cake, her eyes narrowing again. "But before that, tell me who made this cake, and I'll go find him later."

"Okay, it's Blue Poison."

"Oh, so it's Blue Poison." Zilan nodded.

A brief silence.

Zilan's face suddenly turned green: "Wait, who did you say it was!?"

Chapter 298 Can You Take Responsibility for Lappland? (4K)

Lin Ye kept a close eye on Zilan's facial expressions and then successfully drew a conclusion.

Zilan has a real talent for changing her expression, especially the way she can go from calm and collected a few seconds ago to looking completely green with shock, ultimately dropping her plastic fork in fright – something Lin Ye doesn't think he could pull off. So, suppressing a laugh, he said with a hint of schadenfreude, "Hey, Director Zilan, what's wrong? Why that expression? Are you feeling unwell? If you are, you can tell me. You know I worked as a veterinarian in Chernobog for a few years before joining Rhodes Island..."

Zilan finally realized what was happening, slammed her hand on the table, and said angrily, "Lin Ye, are you doing this on purpose?!"

Lin Ye feigned surprise: "Why would the director say that?"

"You!" Zilan gritted her teeth, "You knew this was made by Blue Poison and you still gave it to me to eat?"

“You’ve misunderstood me, Director. Think carefully, when did I ever let you eat it? I clearly put this cake here temporarily so I could take it back later; you were the one who wanted to eat it,” Lin Ye said. “You’re the director, how could I stop you from eating it?”

Zilan was speechless. At this moment, Lin Ye felt that he was a little bit shameless in some ways.

However, Lin Ye knew his limits. A joke was fine, but if he really angered Zilan, he wouldn't fare well either. So he gradually suppressed his gloating laughter and said to Zilan, "I think your prejudice against Blue Poison Operator is too severe."

Zilan glared at Lin Ye and said irritably, "What do you know?"

"How could I not know? I've already looked into it."

"This is none of your business."

“Who says it’s none of my business?” Lin Ye said. “You should also know why Amiya asked me to work on the fourth floor, right? You could say that all the residents on the fourth floor are within my scope of work. Amiya hopes that through me, these operators on the fourth floor who are rejected by Rhodes Island can finally integrate into Rhodes Island. This is my duty and an inescapable responsibility.”

Zilan's lips twitched slightly: "Where did you learn these strange things? And when have we ever ostracized people from the fourth floor?"

"Of course it came from the news... cough cough, that's not important." Lin Ye coughed twice. "As for the second half of the sentence, can you honestly say you didn't discriminate against the residents on the fourth floor?"

"No."

Lin Ye pushed the remaining cake toward Zilan: "Then you should finish the cake."

Zilan got angry again: "Lin Ye, are you looking for trouble?"

"No, I was just talking to you about work." Lin Ye shook his head and said seriously, "You were clearly enjoying the cake just now, but after finding out that Blue Poison made it, you immediately refused to eat it. Can you say that's prejudice?"

"You mean I don't even have the right to choose the food I want to eat?"

"Of course not."

Lin Ye thought for a moment and felt that forcing Zilan to finish Blue Poison's cake seemed a bit like moral coercion. He also knew that such an approach would only provoke resentment from others, so he took the cake back and said, "Whether you want to eat this cake or not is of course your freedom. I just think that you shouldn't be prejudiced against Blue Poison. Although I only interacted with Blue Poison for a few hours, I can tell that she is a very kind girl. She shouldn't be ostracized to the point of only being able to live on the fourth floor; that would be too pitiful."

Seeing that Lin Ye had taken back the cake, Zilan's expression softened: "I understand what you mean. Actually, I'm not unfamiliar with Blue Poison Operator. I also know that she is much better than the other guests on the fourth floor in every aspect, especially her personality."

Compared to the other guests on the fourth floor... Skadi's personality is indeed too special in the eyes of ordinary operators.

Lin Ye silently complained in his heart, but didn't say it out loud. Instead, he continued to listen to Zilan.

“But the problem is, Blue Poison’s body is just too special,” Zilan said. “For the other residents on the fourth floor, like Skadi, most of the operators’ negative impressions of her come from her personality and her less-than-ideal combat experiences. But for Blue Poison, it’s the toxins in her body. Everyone knows that her blood contains a potent poison. No normal person would want to be inexplicably contaminated by toxins, right?”

“But Blue Poison Operator can control the toxins in her body,” Lin Ye said. “With the medical department there, it’s impossible for her to fake this, right?”

“It’s not just the medical department. I can tell you definitively that the person in charge of testing Operator Blue Poison is Dr. Kal’tsit. There’s no one on Rhodes Island more professional than Dr. Kal’tsit,” Zilan said. “But so what? Everyone knows that Dr. Kal’tsit is almost incapable of making mistakes, but that still can’t stop everyone’s concerns about Operator Blue Poison.”

"why is that?"

"Put yourself in their shoes, Dr. Lin Ye," Zilan sighed. "Even if Dr. Kal'tsit tells you that there's a 99.9% chance of getting infected from daily contact with Blue Poison operators, what about the remaining 0.01%? Who wants to be that 0.01%?"

Lin Ye thought about it and realized that Zilan's words made sense. This kind of thing wouldn't have been unusual in his previous life, let alone in Terra, a special world where "demons and monsters run rampant," where there were many cases of Oripathy infected people.

"So, Dr. Lin Ye, I know you mean well, but there's really nothing we can do about this." Zilan tapped the table and said in a rather helpless tone, "I also know this is very unfair to the Blue Poison operators. Even if you explain the facts and reason with most of the operators, you can't completely eliminate their fear, and naturally, you can't eliminate the gap between Blue Poison operators and the other operators. Cough, although as the head of the personnel department I shouldn't make such remarks, I am also one of the majority of operators, and I also have fear of Blue Poison operators. Please understand."

Lin Ye nodded somewhat helplessly: "I understand, I can understand."

"Dr. Lin Ye, you are special." Zilan's voice softened considerably. "Although I had some misunderstandings about you before, I have to admit that you are indeed much better than others in getting along with the operators, and you have a courage that others don't possess. For example, Operator Skadi, and Operator Blue Poison, especially Operator Skadi. Before you came, Operator Skadi was known to be cold and ruthless. She didn't care about the lives of her teammates during battle and never communicated with them. But after becoming your assistant, she was able to take the initiative to support the team attacked in Lungmen without orders... This alone is enough to prove your outstanding work ability."

Lin Ye felt a little embarrassed by what Zilan said, because he really didn't think he had done anything wrong, nor did he think Skadi was as exaggerated as Zilan described. He also couldn't understand why such a gentle girl like Lan Du would inspire such fear in others.

Zilan had no idea what Lin Ye was thinking. She continued, "But some things are indeed not so easy to change."

Lin Ye nodded and said, "I understand, but I won't give up."

Zilan smiled and said, "I knew you wouldn't give up."