Chapter 14: Just Let Him Be, What Else Could We Do?
Chapter 14: Just Let Him Be, What Else Could We Do?
“…Dr. Qin Yu, out of concern for your safety, we planned to raise your security efforts a lot over a long time to guarantee your safety.”
“We hoped you wouldn’t mind that.”
“If you worry about your safety, after Compound 2611 is widely used, we could try to hide your existence as much as possible. You could also make safety requests, and we would try to meet them all, Dr. Qin Yu.”
Adding safety measures for Qin Yu was a must.
But normally, this Senior Leader didn’t need to come talk to Qin Yu about it himself.
Bringing this up now tied back to Qin Yu’s ‘Apocalypse Anxiety’.
They were clearly a bit afraid that Qin Yu, who already had ‘Apocalypse Anxiety’, might feel more worried in the present rough times.
They wanted to actively give him some feeling of ‘safety’ to help calm his ‘Apocalypse Anxiety’.
As for hiding Qin Yu after Compound 2611 was widely used, they could only hide it as well as possible, to buy more time before too many knew about him.
Because by then, surely many people would act like they were crazy and use any trick to hunt Qin Yu down.
Also, Qin Yu was still young, and he ought to enjoy his own glory now and then.
Qin Yu heard what this Senior Leader said and knew what he and the others were thinking.
He saw no need to avoid the issue, so he spoke plainly.
“Senior Leader, yes, I’m troubled about human civilization lasting over the long run. From what I grasp and notice, all humans have long been on thin ice, and today’s calm and steady progress seems more like luck than anything permanent.”
Qin Yu had no wish to keep his thoughts hidden.
“I don’t mean that human civilization must end in the next moment, tomorrow, next year, or the next ten or hundred years. I just think that, on a much larger time scale, someday human civilization won’t stay lucky. Over such big time frames, a civilization ending is almost sure to happen.”
“I’m also not scared that if doomsday hits humans, it will harm me alone. I don’t fear danger for myself in ‘doomsday’. Sometimes I just feel uneasy about ‘humans being gone’.”
Qin Yu’s words made this Senior Leader understand that the ‘Apocalypse Anxiety’ in his file didn’t quite match how he actually was.
Qin Yu did have ‘Apocalypse Anxiety’, but not a fear of his own end—it was about civilization ending.
For a moment, this Senior Leader felt unsure what to say.
If a usual person shared such views, it would likely be brushed off with a laugh.
But this was Qin Yu speaking, the Qin Yu who had just invented Compound 2611—basically the top scientist of our time saying this.
It made no one laugh; it sent a chill down their spines.
Sure, from one person’s view, Qin Yu’s thoughts were still a bit ‘odd’.
After all, Qin Yu noted it was on a bigger time scale, so the odds were high.
But normal folks couldn’t live that long.
Just then, this Senior Leader remembered the new Compound 2611.
If someone lived to a hundred and missed humanity’s end, what about at one hundred eighty? Still possibly miss it?
Since Compound 2611 existed, might there be Compound 2711, Compound 2811?
Note that Qin Yu was only in his twenties; by Compound 2611’s work, from this Senior Leader’s angle, Qin Yu might live past one hundred years more, with plenty of time for research.
A strange thing happened right then.
Though the route was all wrong, at that moment, this Senior Leader’s thinking seemed to meet Qin Yu’s.
“Dr. Qin Yu, your point holds some water. For any person, trouble or tomorrow—which comes first? For civilization, it’s likely the same.”
“In the old days, we could only live decades, barely a century, so maybe we only needed to ready ourselves for events in the next hundred years. Now, your work helps all humans live longer; perhaps we must at times think about far-off future things too.”
After a pause, this Senior Leader said.
“Given that you, Dr. Qin Yu, want to run the ‘Doomsday Gene Bank’, we might truly build such a place to guard against unforeseen accidents. And you, Dr. Qin Yu, can head it up.”
“Thank you,” Qin Yu replied simply.
This Senior Leader gave a little wave.
He added one more point.
“Dr. Qin Yu, strictly put, this ask you just made is about work. What about personally? Have you no requests?”
“I trust the country will manage things well for me,” Qin Yu answered, not politely refusing but saying it like that.
Hearing this, this Senior Leader smiled lightly but did not argue Qin Yu’s words.
…
This Senior Leader had come and gone again.
The next day, publicly, the research on the Lifespan Mechanism led by Qin Yu filed for closure with some small, quiet results.
Since Academician Shen Yaoguo, head of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, was present, that project wrapped up with ease.
This event didn’t stir much noise outside.
After all, for learning circles, even if Qin Yu’s two Lifespan Mechanism papers had sparked a hot trend in the Field of Life Sciences, it wasn’t set that his new work had to achieve bigger things.
At the same time, using that study’s end as his thesis, Qin Yu finished grad school with a short process in the lab building and got his doctoral degree.
For those who knew of Qin Yu, this was no big shock.
Though Qin Yu had joined grad school less than two years back, his earlier papers’ quality made it easy for him to graduate straight to a doctorate.
To folks, Qin Yu leaving early felt right; it would have been odd if he stayed without end.
That same day, the School of Life Sciences at Lingchuan University made Qin Yu an associate professor.
He also took the post of associate researcher at their institute.
Surely, this was mainly to keep things covert.
Until all was set, it was best to not let the Compound 2611 news get out.
For Qin Yu himself, it didn’t matter much.
Even if Compound 2611 came to light, even if he, the father of Compound 2611, walked the street, who could lay a finger on him?
Three days later,
it seemed as if nothing major had happened to the outside world.
Matters related to Compound 2611 were quietly submerged beneath the mountain of ordinary, everyday information, thanks to the government’s deliberate efforts at secrecy.
For the original research teams at the School of Life Sciences,
the only notable change after those few days was this:
the previously sealed experimental building had reopened.
Though people from other research teams, including professors and researchers in the building, couldn’t help but feel curious about what had happened during those days,
for the most part,
the rumors of the earlier “experimental accident” seemed genuine.
Then, immediately after,
the various research teams under different professors at the School of Life Sciences became extremely preoccupied with their own experiments and research.
They simply had no time to discuss or ponder these matters.
Thus, within the School of Life Sciences, the issue gradually settled down.
The reality, of course, was that Qin Yu’s laboratory was being moved.
Inside the university campus, there were simply too many people and too many watchful eyes, making the secrecy for the Compound 2611 project incredibly difficult.
After obtaining Qin Yu’s agreement, higher authorities quickly coordinated to relocate Qin Yu’s laboratory to a far more secretive location near Lingchuan City.
It was a secret research institute, identified only by a numerical code in the outskirts of Lingchuan City.
The entire institute was assigned solely to the experimental team led by Qin Yu.
After Qin Yu took charge, it also received a new institute designation: Research Institute 011. This clearly matched the latter part of ‘Compound 2611’.
All the instruments and equipment from Qin Yu’s two previous laboratories were meticulously arranged to be moved out, silently, like ants moving their nest.
Every single document, every piece of textual record from the two labs, was transported away under the strictest confidentiality classification.
Any lingering traces in the labs that could potentially leak information underwent the most thorough cleaning.
For the Compound 2611 project linked to Compound 2611,
on the matter of secrecy,
higher authorities laid down four requirements:
1. The existence of Compound 2611 must not be exposed.
2. Its development location must not be exposed.
3. The identities of personnel involved in the project must not be exposed.
4. Its synthesis technology must not be exposed.
These four demands formed a continuous set of conditions.
As Qin Yu moved with his research team to Research Institute 011,
the size of the team he led naturally expanded significantly.
Regarding hardware,
Shen Yaoguo, who was in charge of liaising with Qin Yu, just asked Qin Yu to provide a list.
Then, items started arriving in batches specifically for Qin Yu.
Regarding personnel,
Shen Yaoguo provided Qin Yu with a roster containing experts from the Field of Life Sciences, spanning various research institutes and universities.
However, for Qin Yu, since Compound 2611 was already successfully synthesized and the main focus now was just on mass production,
he didn’t really need too many specialized scholars from the field. What he needed were experimental technicians.
Prioritizing secrecy, Qin Yu selected personnel in several batches.
Additionally, the previously involved Academician Wu Ming, as well as Qin Yu’s graduate supervisor, Professor Chen Anmin, both insiders and respected scholars in the field, stayed on to assist Qin Yu.
This was an essential necessity.
Otherwise, relying solely on Qin Yu and his former lab mates to synthesize it manually,
it would take till the Year of the Monkey to produce enough Compound 2611 for everyone in the Huaxia Nation.
The increased team size would accelerate Compound 2611’s advancement through the Clinical Trial process.
Concurrently, there was a likely need to optimize the synthesis process for large-scale, automated production.
Higher authorities also dispatched experts in this area to assist Qin Yu.
Furthermore,
regarding the procurement of the raw materials needed for synthesizing Compound 2611,
Shen Yaoguo instructed Qin Yu to list the required raw materials mixed within a much longer list of other materials.
It was best if even Shen Yaoguo himself couldn’t discern which specific materials were actually essential for Compound 2611.
Armed with this padded materials list, Shen Yaoguo split it up and assigned different units to purchase different materials,
all to maximize the secrecy surrounding Compound 2611.
For a long while to come,
probably only Qin Yu himself would know the complete synthesis process for Compound 2611.
Due to the needs of Professor Qin Yu’s Research Institute 011 for the Compound 2611 project,
many researchers from institutes under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Huacademic) found themselves transferred to Research Institute 011, sometimes by a simple official order.
For these researchers who received the transfer orders,
they basically knew nothing about the reasons – their choice was simply to go or not to go.
However, most didn’t refuse.
First, it was a national necessity.
Second, being researchers, their natural curiosity was usually quite strong.
……
With special procedures enacted for special circumstances,
and under the leadership of Qin Yu, practically a certified super-genius,
the second batch of Compound 2611 was synthesized smoothly and without issues.
A second round of Clinical Trials was then initiated.
Academician Wu Ming, along with some of the older newly added researchers from the lab, participated in this batch of trials.
A total of thirty people participated in this second round of Clinical Trials.
Qin Yu himself did not use it.
No one tried to persuade him to, either. After all, this was only the second human trial of Compound 2611, and risks definitely existed.
Many researchers were actually more worried about Qin Yu having problems than about themselves having issues.
The second batch of Clinical Trials concluded successfully once again, without any hitches.
After using Compound 2611, following just one night,
all thirty participants in this second trial showed clear, positive improvements in their physical health indicators.
This outcome allowed quite a few people to finally breathe a sigh of relief.
It proved that the synthesis of Compound 2611 was not a fluke;
it could be consistently replicated. This point was crucial.
Many experiments in biology and materials science sometimes couldn’t be reproduced.
If that had happened with 2611, despite its evident effects, it would have been maddening.
It also proved that Compound 2611’s effect wasn’t a one-off coincidence.
The results seen in Professor Chen Anmin were replicable and held generality.
This served as the prerequisite for the broader application of Compound 2611 later on.
Simultaneously,
during this period, people continuously monitored the condition of Professor Chen Anmin, the very first person to use Compound 2611 for life extension.
Fortunately, Professor Chen Anmin remained in good health.
One Researcher who had worked in drug research found these results particularly exciting:
“As a newly discovered, special substance,”
“the stability Compound 2611 demonstrates during its use is truly amazing!”
“It just goes to show,” he continued, “Professor Qin Yu is truly extraordinary! Compound 2611, predicted by his theoretical work, perfectly achieves the effects he foresaw.”
Over this period, the many researchers who came to Research Institute 011 to work under Qin Yu began sensing something his original lab mates felt before.
After repeatedly failing to perceive any limit to Qin Yu’s intellect, they couldn’t help but start questioning themselves.
They began doubting their earlier confidence in their own moderate talents.
Compared to Professor Qin, it was really hard not to wonder if you weren’t… well, a bit ‘slow’.
Of course, after spending more time around him, that feeling tended to evolve into mere acceptance:
No wonder something as miraculous as Compound 2611 emerged from within Professor Qin Yu’s team.
If a substance like Compound 2611 could be born in this era at all,
then it was almost an inevitability that it would be brought into this world by Professor Qin Yu.
With the success of the second batch of Clinical Trials,
naturally came a third batch, then a fourth…
Everyone understood the critical urgency of synthesizing Compound 2611.
Under the divisions of labor assigned by Qin Yu, each person focused intensely on their own tasks, hoping to work faster, and faster still.
Under Qin Yu’s leadership,
the transition from the second batch of Clinical Trials to beginning the mass production of Compound 2611 indeed took remarkably little time.
In just three months’ time,
Compound 2611 entered mass production.
This speed was largely facilitated because Compound 2611, as a life-extension mechanism, was fundamentally very mature.
Throughout the multiple rounds of Clinical Trials, researchers observed no negative side effects detected, and no aspects needing refinement emerged.