“Jenny didn’t come again?” Professor Keylor asked Charles as he was walking around looking at the camera on the stand.

Without looking up at the professor, he spoke through the mask, “No sir. Humans need to build social relationships. They can’t stay stuck in a lab like me.”

Everyone in the lab laughed aloud at his joke. Laughing the loudest was the newly joined blonde girl, named Emma he guessed. Charles wasn’t sure if they were laughing because his words were funny or if they meant something else. Because he always laughed at himself in such a sarcastic way like that.

“It’s good to keep yourself in a lab. I like guys who are passionate about research,” Emma said. She continued to laugh loudly as if she wanted to let everyone know how full of energy and fun she was.

If she was infected with some kind of virus, the virus would spread throughout this room and would attack everybody even though they were wearing thick blouses, gloves and glasses, and masks and all. Sometimes Charles often had very negative thoughts like that.

“Do you know how to adjust this, Emma?” he asked her, pointing his finger at the camera.

“My name is Anna,” she said with obvious disappointment. But then she smiled, walked over to the camera, and pressed the button. “Of course, I know. Jenny isn’t the only one who knows how to film.”

It’s true. Jenny wasn’t the only one who knows how to film, but without her presence, the lab atmosphere lacked something, like… enthusiasm? Charles was used to the scene where a girl in the media team had almost no interest in scientific research but attentively observed and recorded their work to update on the channels and then also ran to ask for sponsorship things. Surely she also wanted the team to achieve something big. Jenny once said she wanted to make the city famous for something other than the name Happy City.

Jenny isn’t a native of Genright, but she probably has more fun than the rest of them.

He thought as he examined the pile of samples in the test cup. This lab, located next to the science team’s room, was the main place he and the rest of the team used. The other room was mainly for meetings or activities for new members or something, like that morning.

“Why did she leave so suddenly this morning?” Professor Keylor asked him again.

Charles pretended not to hear.

“I don’t know. Maybe she went somewhere with Alex. Those two often go together.” Julia replied.

“Probably hiding together,” Emma added, giggling again.

“Hmm, will the team be disbanded soon?” Professor Keylor muttered, sounding like a complaint.

Why disband? Charles glanced over. The professor with shoulder-length hair and tortoiseshell glasses was holding his forehead in frustration and helplessness. But Charles didn’t ask. Professor Keylor always had pessimistic thoughts ahead of time and worried about the elderly. And that was none of his business.

Besides, it’s not strange that Alex and Jenny often go together to study. Alex likes to communicate and discover new things and is quite suitable for Jenny. However, Charles felt a little embarrassed by Alex’s attitude in the morning when he asked him why she left so early.

“We’re going to do a new project,” Alex said.

Alex’s new project was a time machine. A project that, according to Jenny, was “crazy”. Everything in this group was usually crazy for Jenny. Charles usually didn’t agree with her except this Alex’s project, because it was crazy. It was crazy not because he fantasized but because of the consequences behind it. Time-traveling into the past was usually to fix something. And if so, it would entail a series of changes. However, Alex wanted to go back to the past not because he wanted to fix anything. He was just… curious. He wanted to know how it was. That craziness was also the reason Charles liked talking to Alex.

Back to the main point, the strange thing was that then Alex laughed and asked him: “Hey, is there anything you like more than your studies?”

“Seriously?” Charles wondered. It was because Alex often teased people.

“Seriously.”

“This city. I love watching it grow,” that’s what Charles replied.

He thought there was no irony in that sentence. But for some reason, Alex laughed.

Thinking back on it, Charles guessed something wasn’t right.

***

Closing the door that led to the small corner at the back of the lab, Charles took off his mask and glasses. Then he lit a cigarette and smoked, looking up at the blue sky above. It was autumn, the afternoon sun was pleasant. In the air, besides the familiar smell of the lab and the smell of his cigarette smoke, there was also the slightly aromatic odor of plants. Whenever there was something hard to think about, sneaking out here to smoke was a habit of both him and Alex. Honestly, it was not that hard. What bothered him was that the progress was not being accelerated as he expected. Maybe Alex was right. This time, his project would be finished first, no matter how crazy that time machine was.

All of a sudden, Charles heard a noise behind him. He glanced back quickly, rubbing his cigarette in the ashtray on the wall, intending to raise his hands to say that he was taking a puff to relieve the stress, thinking it was Professor Keylor, but it turned out not to be.

“You seem disappointed,” the blonde girl named Emma was leaning against the closed door, asking. She also took off her glasses and mask, her big gray eyes blinking, “Is it because I’m bad at filming?”

“No, of course not,” he replied, tossing his curly hair back and not lighting his cigarette again. “I just need to think for a while.”

“About what?” Emma said, tilting her head to look at him questioningly, her hand in her white blouse pocket.

“The research. I’m afraid it will take a long time.”

“Why? Your previous research is still very fast, aren’t they?” Emma asked him a stupid question. Sometimes Charles wondered if Professor Keylor had selected the new members as carefully as he used to because those new members were naive and useless. But he didn’t say it.

“Since this is a drug, a license is required,” he smiled and patiently explained. “But I’m afraid I’ll have to go and convince them again because I might get rejected.”

“Sounds frustrating.”

Emma said, thought for a moment, then asked a crazy question, “Then why don’t you take it out of here and do it yourself?”

This girl was really stupid and didn’t know the rules.

“Let’s just say I can take it out, there won’t be anyone volunteering to test it. If I test it on myself, I’m afraid of making an unbiased assessment.”

“If you take it out of here, I’ll be your first guinea pig,” Emma said, smiling again as if it were some very good idea.

Charles rolled his eyes at her. She was crazy. But somehow, her words made him strangely comfortable and sorta pleasure. Emma is a native of Genright. Her eye color is gray, very different from the amber of Jenny's eyes. But why did her look now remind him of Jenny? Maybe it was because Jenny often looked at him that way.