Chapter 9: The Desire for Lifespan
Chapter 9: The Desire for Lifespan
As an intelligent species with a limited lifespan, capable of understanding the meaning of death,
humans’ pursuit of eternal life, or longevity, is hard-wired into their genes.
It is said that humanity, or all living beings, has two most fundamental instincts:
one is survival, and the other is reproduction.
In fact, reproduction is merely an extension of the survival instinct.
It is the outward expression of extending the individual’s need to exist to the whole population when the individual cannot live forever.
Throughout history, across all cultures, few have ever truly seen through life and death.
Even those unafraid of death find it hard to resist the opportunity for longevity when it presents itself.
Qin Yu was no exception to this; otherwise, when given the chance to make three wishes, he wouldn’t have made Absolute Immortality his first choice.
However, already possessing Absolute Immortality, he could now approach this with a calm mind.
But clearly, for everyone else in the laboratory, things were different.
After Qin Yu gave his affirmative answer, the entire laboratory suddenly went silent, becoming very quiet, centered around the experimental substance on the operating table.
Everyone could hear the intense thumping of their own hearts in their chests,
and the heavy, unclear breathing that could be coming from beside them or themselves.
The rush of blood made their temples ache, and their upper bodies involuntarily rose and fell with each breath and heartbeat.
In reality, at that moment, most people present were in a daze.
Their minds, overwhelmed by enormous information, couldn’t turn, while their bodies reacted instinctively, driven by adrenaline.
Then came varied expressions of reaction.
One person felt as if they were standing on cotton. Despite understanding what the substance in the measuring cup on the table meant, a strong sense of unreality persisted.
Unthinkingly, instinctively, that person slowly reached a hand out toward the measuring cup holding the experimental substance.
But immediately, the person beside him grabbed his outstretched hand, looking at him with an indescribable gaze,
as if questioning, or demanding, what he intended to do.
Snapping back to his senses, the person hesitated, said nothing, and simply lowered his hand, joining the others in staring at the substance in the measuring cup.
Qin Yu’s advisor, the old Professor Chen Anmin, the moment his mind recovered from the shock,
couldn’t help casting a gaze of desire, fervor, even greed upon the experimental substance in the measuring cup.
Then, his expression quickly became complex again.
With the chance to extend life before him, even the battle-tested old professor
stungled to remain calm.
In ordinary circumstances, the longer a person has lived, the more precious they understand life to be,
and the closer they come to death, the more they fear it.
Throughout history, countless people have struggled, raged, gone mad, and fallen into utter despair in the face of death—
and that was without truly seeing the opportunity for longevity.
Now, a substance capable of genuinely extending lifespan lay before them.
Placed before someone dying, most would likely trade anything to attain it.
Wealth, dignity, decency, principles, freedom, morals…
Without exaggeration,
should this thing appear under less controlled circumstances,
it could provoke a devastating war on a global scale.
Countless people would erupt in a fierce struggle for it.
Many would unleash unimaginable madness and malice for its sake.
Even,
if, for objective reasons, the current batch of experimental substance were the only one ever producible,
then a brutal battle might erupt right within this laboratory.
And the victor might not even protect his prize;
anyone who ingested this substance would almost certainly face attempts to draw their marrow—
those maddened by the threat of death would not abandon that chance.
Who knows,
years later, might artists create a work capturing this moment in the laboratory,
much like The Last Supper?
But for now, right here in this lab, the scene indeed unfurled— a moment woven into history, as tangible and dense as a passage in epic poetry.
A ‘holy relic’ symbolizing the dawn of a new era,
and at the heart of it all, Qin Yu— outwardly the calmest presence—
seemed to anchor the scene, around him swirling figures with expressions ranging from reverence to rapture, fixated upon the tiny vial now synonymous with extra life itself.
Then,
finally, someone picked up the measuring cup holding the experimental substance.
This time, no one stopped it.
Because it was Qin Yu who had lifted the cup.
He drew it near, held it up to the laboratory lights.
The liquid inside gleamed as it trembled; it looked strangely beautiful.
Surrounding him, the others— including Professor Chen Anmin— shifted their gaze, following the cup back to Qin Yu.
“Just as everyone suspects,” Qin Yu began, “this is our research team’s final breakthrough. The key experiment’s finished substance.”
“It’s a unique compound. Able to provoke an unexpected biological shift inside human bodies. Based on existing theories of Lifespan Mechanisms… it actually alters how those ‘timers’ function. Resets the countdown.”
Qin Yu wasted little time on ambiguity, bluntly stating exactly what he knew they were craving to hear.
In the lab, Qin Yu’s seniors, his fellow researchers, his mentor himself— remained silent.
Right then, confronted both by Qin Yu’s words and this earth-shattering achievement in the Field of Life Sciences, no one knew what to say.
“Haaahhh…”
Eventually, it was the steadier Professor Chen Anmin who sighed deeply, finally finding his voice.
“Qin Yu… Congratulations. You’ve made a… an old man fiercely proud.”
As he spoke, Professor Chen Anmin felt his phrasing sounded pitifully flat.
How many academic conferences, triumphs large and small? Yet now? Simple phrases locked uselessly tight. Mouth dry, sentences shattered on his tongue.
It took another voice— one of Qin Yu’s senior researchers, the professor’s silence broken— to finally capture the explosion building inside each person in that lab.
“Fuck..! F-FUCK ME! Boss… No, Grandmaster! Yu… Qin! Yu-ge! Did… did we seriously… crack it?”
“I actually got to join a top-level project like this? No… holy crap!”
“Though I dreamed about it long ago, I thought we could make the final thing under your lead, Qin Yu… but I never really believed we would actually do it.”
At that moment, this senior brother talked as if his left and right brains were fighting, but he mostly showed how everybody felt.
After this senior brother spoke, the other senior brothers and sisters couldn’t hold back anymore.
Basically, they all started talking in the same or similar way.
They didn’t really listen to each other; they just let out their own feelings.
Almost every time they opened their mouths, they blurted out a “holy crap.”
In that situation, everyone found it hard to use a better word.
Even though they acted super excited, while letting out their emotions, they got a bit more sensible than before.
At least, they didn’t have that urge to drink the experiment result in the Measuring Cup anymore.
The messy bad thoughts that just popped up in their minds on their own also faded away.
Mainly, they believed that since Qin Yu could lead them to make this first sample of the experiment result, he could definitely make a second one. They were still young and could wait.
“Brother Qin, you’re awesome! From now on, whatever you tell me to do, I’ll do it—I’ll follow your lead completely!”
“Stop it, still calling him junior? That’s rude. Brother Qin… from now on, you’re my senior, and I’ll definitely listen to whatever you say!”
“I feel like this is totally a dream. I never doubted that you could do something big with this project, Brother Qin, but I thought it would just be a theoretical breakthrough like before, without really changing the real world or the whole thing. I never thought I’d get to be part of such a big research project in my life.”
“Nonsense, this whole project was pushed by Brother Qin himself. We just helped out with the small stuff.”
“Hey, let’s take a photo together later. I think today will go down in history. Doesn’t this mean we’ll be famous alongside Brother Qin?”
While talking, whether senior brothers or sisters, they couldn’t help but fidget around.
If they weren’t too far from the table, someone might have started pacing—they just couldn’t calm down.
They wanted to cheer, wanted to shout, and they were jumping out of their skin—that was the state of Qin Yu and these senior fellows right then.
“… Qin Yu, when you first talked to me about studying Lifespan Mechanisms, to be honest, I never imagined this day.”
“Only after your paper came out did I start to wonder if it could happen. This kind of Life Extension Technology, something everyone wants, might you actually make it real?”
Professor Chen Anmin calmed down faster than all those senior fellows.
He raised his hand, wiped his face, let out a big breath, and said with a laugh,
“But now you’ve really done it… I’m… I don’t even know what to say.”
“I won’t hide it from you—when you said this thing could lengthen human life, I almost grabbed the Measuring Cup and chugged it down. That tells you how shocking your result is.”
“My heart is still beating like crazy; I can’t calm down. Before, I thought I’d seen it all as an older guy who handled big things. But when you showed this, I realized I’m just a regular person after all.”
Professor Chen Anmin’s breathing was still heavy at the end, and his words got a bit messy.
No choice—not everyone can stay calm when faced with something that will shake the whole world and affect everyone’s life.
“Later, whatever you decide—publish a paper, report it—I’ll back you up. I won’t interfere; you make the call.”
“Just hope you’re super careful, Qin Yu. You’re smart, an incredibly sharp person like none I’ve seen. You should know the huge wave this will cause once it’s out.”
Professor Chen Anmin spoke again, turning to Qin Yu’s senior brothers and sisters, and said with a smile,
“Foolish kids, foolish girls, thank your junior brother properly. He’s giving you huge credit. Forget about helping him with research—just being his coworker is worth a lifetime of benefits. And the stuff you all did under him, any undergrad from a university could be trained to do it in weeks.”
Of course, Professor Chen Anmin wasn’t really jealous of these students.
After all, he was Qin Yu’s advisor.
Plus, he was Qin Yu’s very first teacher in the Field of Life Sciences.
Years later, maybe people would forget his other works and achievements in life, but he’d still be remembered as Qin Yu’s teacher.
People would still recall that he once taught a student like Qin Yu.
He could already say for sure: having Qin Yu as a student was his proudest moment and greatest achievement in life.
Tonight, when he got back, he didn’t know if he’d sleep, but he might wake up laughing if he did.
“Professor, of course! If Brother Qin would allow it, I’d make a statue of him and keep it in my bedroom forever, to worship every day.”
This might sound exaggerated, but the guy meant it.
After getting to the doctorate level, most folks know their limits.
Qin Yu led them in this project research.
Even though everyone knew Qin Yu was the key reason the project worked out, and they just did the basic test tasks that any grad could handle, this was enough to set them on an easy path for life.
Qin Yu’s senior brothers and sisters had no doubt that being assistants in Qin Yu’s research group would be the best thing on their résumé.
After this, just listing it would let them glide through most situations.
As for Qin Yu, once this life-extending test result got used, all the people it helped would push him to be a great scientist for the ages, almost like a saint.
As for stealing Qin Yu’s huge research result—despite all the excitement now, none of these senior folks even thought about it.
First, the whole process was led by Qin Yu; even if all nine of them teamed up, they couldn’t redo the result.
They only helped Qin Yu with the tests he designed and had no clue about the overall research steps.
To steal the result, they’d need the skills to do it—which they lacked.
Something this big, changing the world, isn’t easy to steal anyway.
If they couldn’t remake the test sample after this, things could get messy, maybe even bloody.
Also, Qin Yu’s breakthrough built on his earlier papers about Lifespan Mechanisms.
He made it naturally; stealing it wouldn’t be easy for them.
Of course, those kids barely had that idea in mind—they weren’t that dumb.
They just wanted to cling tight to Qin Yu, the golden ticket.
They almost wanted to put him on a pedestal.
“… Brother Qin, what should we do next? You make the plan!”
After a while of excitement, everyone in the Laboratory calmed down a bit.
Their faces were still flushed, and their hearts didn’t slow easily.
Eyes turned back to Qin Yu.
Qin Yu looked at the group and placed the Measuring Cup back on the table.
Every pair of eyes stayed fixed on that bit of experiment result.
“No need to put me on a pedestal. I’m really thankful to all you senior brothers and sisters for your hard work these days on our research, and thanks to you, Professor, for the support.”
Qin Yu said this first, then went on to explain more about the experiment result.