“Open the door.”

“Wait, Father—“

Ignoring the boy desperately barricading the door, Mr. Pandora’s secretary placed her hand on the lock scanner, easily gaining access to the room.

“No!” Joseph tried to block their way, but two men quickly came to his side and tightly held onto him.

Mr. Pandora entered the room. Spotting Fergus, his eyes narrowed. “You must be that technician that’s been skipping work. I’ll have your salary deducted for three months.”

Fergus, who was already breaking with cold sweat, paled. His legs felt like jelly, but he still pushed on with a stiff smile. “Mr. Pandora, sir! What brings you here?”

“I should be asking you that. If you don’t answer me truthfully, I’ll have you fired immediately,” Mr. Pandora sneered.

“N-no, sir, that’s—!”

“So? What’s been keeping you here with my son?”

“Ah, that… that…” Fergus stammered, his eyes darting around nervously. “With all due respect, sir, we wanted to keep it a secr—Hiiii!” Seeing the murderous look given by the menacing older Pandora, Fergus squeaked.

“—S-s-s-secret, but since you’re here already, there’s no choice but to reveal the big surprise, ha ha,” Fergus laughed nervously.

“Big surprise?” Mr. Pandora raised an eyebrow. His arms crossed on his chest, “Go on.”

“Y-y-yes.” Fergus rubbed his sweaty hands on the white lab coat he was wearing, sending a furtive glance towards a certain corner.

Being the seasoned military man that he was, naturally, Mr. Pandora noticed it. His face darkened.

“I-if you would come this way, sir,” Fergus led the man away from the corner, gesturing to one of the many intricate machineries that the lab held.

“…” Mr. Pandora said nothing as he complied, wanting to see just what these two were up to.

“Your son, uh, young master Joseph, he, uh, found a unique DNA sample a while back,” Fergus took out one of the test tubes from the machine, showing it to the man. “He was lucky to have managed to grab some, as this sample was really, uh, really, unique.”

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“Oh?”

Fergus rummaged the drawers beside him for a while, shakily reaching for a set of documents. “This, is the, uh, report. For the sample.”

Mr. Pandora scanned through the report, his eyes glittering brightly with every page turned. He handed back the report to Fergus once he finished.

“Have you been able to de-sequence it?”

“N-no, not yet. The sequencing is far too complex and nothing like what I’ve ever seen before, so it’s been taking me a while to figure it out.”

“Good, good!”

Mr. Pandora began smiling. He was ecstatic!

His son had somehow gotten his hands on a very unique sample. If they were able to figure out its sequencing, they could use the data to open up many doors and opportunities that they were unable to explore in previous researches!

This could very well lead to a breakthrough in many of their research, and even allow them to delve into fields that was previously too far and out of reach for them, so Mr. Pandora was currently very, very happy.

All these years of pampering his son was really not wasted, ah!

“Father, wait!” Joseph finally broke past his father’s bodyguards. He haphazardly entered the room, only to be met with his smiling father and the sweating technician.

“F-father, I can explain…” Joseph paled as he trembled.

Mr. Pandora took big steps towards his son. Joseph immediately shut his eyes tightly, preparing himself for the beating to come.

However—

“Hahaha! Good son, why didn’t you tell me?!” Mr. Pandora patted his son’s shoulder in elation.

“T-Tell you wh—“

“AAAAH!” Fergus shouted before the boy managed to finish his sentence. “AHAHAHA, young master! I’m so sorry, I let it slip about the sample that you found!”

“Sample—?” Joseph looked at Fergus confusedly, but seeing his cue, he immediately caught on. As a scion of a big company that specialised in biotechnology, naturally, he was not that stupid. Besides, Fergus had previously expressed his interest in Mystery’s leftover DNA samples, so he could quickly connect the dots.

“Oh, yes! That. That sample. Yes.” Joseph laughed, feeling a tinge of relief, “Oh, Fergus, you! How can you spoil the surprise to Father so soon?! I was thinking of presenting the research results to Father once it’s completed! Oh, you~”

Hearing Joseph’s words, Mr. Pandora did not bother to think about their suspicious actions and smiled widely. It was the first time in a very long time since he felt this happy.

“Good son! I’ll have more funds and people allocated to your team! Starting from today, this floor is yours. Do whatever you want.” He patted his son’s shoulder once again. “As for you, Fergus, was it? I’ll have you promoted to head researcher. Don’t disappoint me!”

“Yes, yes, yes!” Fergus and Joseph immediately nodded their heads, hoping that the older man would finally go away.

Finally, after the man left, the two finally heaved a breath of relief.

“That was close… sorry, Fergus. I made you reveal your research to Father.”

Fergus, whose legs finally gave out, shook his head, “No, no. I was only able to get Mystery’s DNA because you introduced her to me. I couldn’t even have dreamt of doing this had you not given me the opportunity. I should be the one thanking you, young master.”

The two exchanged a brief laugh.

“By the way, how did you know what to do? The door was soundproof, wasn’t it?”

“Oh, actually…” Fergus begun explaining about what transpired after Joseph received the call.