Interstellar president (8): He really likes Gu Juntian, but it’s a pity that he can only have this person for one year.

Gu Juntian possessed the original owner’s memories.

The original owner had graduated from a prestigious university with excellent grades and had even interned at Minghui for a year, gaining a fair amount of knowledge.

But to Gu Juntian, it still wasn’t enough.

In this era, there was all kinds of knowledge available online, but much of it was behind paywalls. The original owner came from a poor family and was unwilling to spend money on paid resources… He had learned the knowledge in textbooks and what was taught at school very well, but he knew very little about things beyond that.

Earlier today, Gu Juntian had spent money to purchase a pile of materials, but had only managed to skim through a small portion. After dinner, he wanted to continue reading.

“I’ll stay with you in the study while you go over your materials. Don’t worry, I won’t bother you,” Zhou Qinghao offered.

Yesterday, Gu Juntian hadn’t let Zhou Qinghao follow him because he was writing a report, and he had no way to explain how he knew the situation in Zhou Jinhai’s lab.

But today he was simply reviewing materials, so as long as Zhou Qinghao didn’t touch him, it was fine for him to stay nearby.

“Then while you work, I’ll study,” Gu Juntian said.

Zhou Qinghao smiled and agreed.

He hadn’t expected that the little lover he had spent money on would turn out to be someone so devoted to his career.

Still, a man like that was undeniably attractive.

Dinner was plentiful, and after eating, the two of them went to the study together.

Zhou Qinghao’s study was well-equipped with all kinds of devices. Gu Juntian projected the materials in front of him, reading three documents at once, and from time to time, he would highlight lines in mid-air and extract bits of information.

He was incredibly focused while reading, and Zhou Qinghao watched him just as intently.

Although Gu Juntian had always talked about working, Zhou Qinghao hadn’t really taken it seriously before.

Now, seeing how earnest he was, Zhou Qinghao realized that Gu Juntian truly loved doing research.

Of the two million yuan Zhou Qinghao had given him as a “sponsor,” Gu Juntian hadn’t spent a single cent on anything else—he had used it solely to buy study materials.

Zhou Qinghao really liked this person, and the only thing he could do before his death was to give this person all the support he could.

While handling some of his own work, Zhou Qinghao would occasionally glance at Gu Juntian.

Gu Juntian was fully immersed in his studies, but when 7:30 came, he shut off the computer without hesitation and looked over at Zhou Qinghao. “I’m done. Let’s go to the bedroom.”

“Okay.” Zhou Qinghao smiled, hugged Gu Juntian, kissed his cheek, and then noticed a certain part of Gu Juntian had suddenly perked up.

Finding a young, energetic lover really was quite nice.

As usual, the two of them tangled together for quite a while, and by the end, Zhou Qinghao was left utterly drained.

He had never really slept that well in the past.

But ever since he got together with Gu Juntian, he had been sleeping very well every night.

Probably because he was getting a lot more physical activity.

He really liked Gu Juntian. It was a shame he could only have this person for one year.

Zhou Qinghao stared intently at Gu Juntian.

Gu Juntian had already helped him clean up. He kissed Zhou Qinghao and then said, “Go to sleep.”

Tomorrow, he still had many things to take care of.

In fact, there were some matters from the original owner that he needed to handle too—like how Ning Jianuo had called him over the past couple of days.

And then there was the matter of Minghui blacklisting him.

He did offend his supervisor when he quit, but Minghui was such a large lab—surely it wouldn’t go so far as to blacklist a freshly graduated intern over something so small.

Someone who had worked at Minghui for more than ten years, produced a lot of results, and publicly cursed Qin Zhao of Minghui on a public platform—that would be someone of weight.

If Minghui blacklisted him in the industry, it might have something to do with Zhou Jinhai.

In the original storyline, Zhou Jinhai only “recognized” the original owner and acknowledged their relationship after Zhou Qinghao had an accident. But Gu Juntian suspected that he had been watching the original owner long before that.

The original owner’s university years had always been rough—he never won any awards, and aside from Ning Jianuo, he had no other friends… it was possible all of this was orchestrated by Zhou Jinhai.

Zhou Jinhai probably hoped that before he used the original owner’s body, the original owner would remain unknown and obscure, so he could avoid a lot of trouble.

Zhou Jinhai would never let the original owner have a chance to become famous.

Gu Juntian really disliked Zhou Jinhai, but he was currently too busy to bother with that man.

He also didn’t want to get entangled with Zhou Jinhai and the others. As long as he was strong enough, they would be nothing.

Gu Juntian fell asleep early, while Zhou Jinhai—who had just briefly crossed his mind—was now livid with rage.

Just as Gu Juntian had suspected, Zhou Jinhai had been watching him all along.

Ever since Gu Juntian was very young, Zhou Jinhai had known that Gu Juntian’s genetic stability was extremely high.

From that point on, Zhou Jinhai considered Gu Juntian’s body his own.

He had remained behind the scenes, manipulating this son’s life from the shadows.

Up until Gu Juntian graduated from university, his life had gone almost exactly as Zhou Jinhai had planned.

Although Gu Juntian had a boyfriend, Ning Jianuo was an orphan and easy to get rid of—Zhou Jinhai never considered him a problem.

However, recently, unexpected things kept happening.

First, his son accidentally found out that he was monitoring Gu Juntian, then discovered that Gu Juntian was his illegitimate child—and proceeded to steal Gu Juntian’s boyfriend.

Then, Gu Juntian took one day off from Minghui and quit!

Worried that his son might do something to harm Gu Juntian, Zhou Jinhai contacted the lab at Minghui and asked them to blacklist Gu Juntian in the industry.

He planned to bring Gu Juntian into his own lab when he couldn’t find another job—or even acknowledge him as his son outright and keep him under his watch.

He couldn’t let anything happen to Gu Juntian.

But just as he made that decision, he found out something shocking—Gu Juntian had gotten involved with that brother of his!

Zhou Qinghao had lived more than thirty years without ever dating, and no one knew what got into him. Suddenly he brought Gu Juntian home and told everyone that Gu Juntian was his boyfriend.

Zhou Jinhai was utterly disgusted.

He viewed Gu Juntian’s body as his own. If Gu Juntian was with Zhou Qinghao, wasn’t that essentially the same as him being with Zhou Qinghao?

And Zhou Qinghao was the person he hated the most!

Zhou Qinghao’s parents had clearly already adopted him, yet still insisted on having their own biological child—clearly never seeing him as their real son!

Was he just a substitute?

When Zhou’s mother was pregnant with Zhou Qinghao, he had hoped she would have a miscarriage. After Zhou Qinghao was born, he constantly thought about killing him.

But he was afraid of being found out, so in the end, Zhou Qinghao was allowed to live.

Now his own son was actually being kept by Zhou Qinghao… Zhou Jinhai flew into a rage.

When Zhou Jinhai found out about this, his son—Zhou Yan, who was currently Ning Jianuo’s boyfriend—also learned about it and couldn’t help but burst into laughter.

His father’s illegitimate son was being kept by Zhou Qinghao!

This was just perfect!

Now that this had happened, there was no way his father would have the face to acknowledge Gu Juntian as part of the family.

Zhou Yan had always known his father had someone outside the family, and he didn’t care about the affair itself.

What he feared was that the illegitimate child would be acknowledged and come back to claim a share of the family inheritance.

Gu Juntian neither knew nor cared about the Zhou family’s affairs. Early the next morning, he rushed to the lab.

At that time, all the lab supplies ordered by Cao Bo had already begun to arrive one after another.

While reviewing research material, Gu Juntian also checked the delivered items and directed Qin Zhao and the others to organize everything properly.

He was extremely busy that day—not only receiving all the materials but also onboarding six new researchers.

Because of the newcomers, Gu Juntian had to take half an hour to speak with the six new hires as well as the four original team members, including Qin Zhao.

Having read a lot of material, he shared even more insights today.

The six newcomers were filled with excitement as they listened, while Qin Zhao and the others looked toward the future with great anticipation.

What Gu Juntian was talking about sounded more and more feasible!

This lab might actually be able to develop something that could save all of humanity.

“I’m clocking out now. You all continue checking the lab equipment. If anything is missing, write up a list and send it to Cao Bo so he can get everything ready. Tomorrow, we’re starting experiments,” said Gu Juntian.

Zhou Qinghao’s condition couldn’t wait—he had to start as soon as possible.

Qin Zhao and the others had previously thought Gu Juntian was being too hasty, but after hearing his talk, they were even more anxious than he was, wishing they could begin the research immediately.

So, that night, the ten researchers voluntarily stayed late to organize the lab and asked Cao Bo to prepare even more supplies.

Cao Bo: “…” This Qin Zhao was really going too far—taking advantage of Gu Juntian getting off work to not only win over all the researchers but even leading them to work late into the night!

Was his plan to put on a show while Gu Juntian was around, then pull the team into working all night once Gu Juntian left?

Still, having such a hardworking researcher in the lab wasn’t a bad thing. If they could develop a better treatment than Minghui, Zhou Qinghao becoming the richest man was only a matter of time.

After all, not only were more and more people developing Gene Collapse Syndrome, but the average age of onset was getting younger and younger.

Previously, the average age for onset was in the sixties, but now it was fifty-six.

In the future, it might drop to the forties.

Cao Bo sighed, then went ahead and bought everything Qin Zhao and the others requested.

Meanwhile, Gu Juntian was having dinner with Zhou Qinghao.

That evening, besides the usual dishes prepared by the Zhou family’s chef, there were also a few street food snacks.

“I suddenly wanted to try them, so I asked someone to bring them back,” Zhou Qinghao said with a smile when he saw Gu Juntian looking at the snacks.

Gu Juntian knew that wasn’t the real reason.

Zhou Qinghao was aware that he didn’t have much time left—that’s why he wanted to try something new, and that made Gu Juntian feel a little sad.

Gu Juntian said, “It’s fine to taste them, but don’t eat too much.”

These foods weren’t healthy, and Zhou Qinghao’s body was already in poor condition. Eating too much would only make it worse.

“Don’t worry, I won’t eat too much,” Zhou Qinghao smiled at him. “I still want to live a little longer.”

More than just living longer, he also wanted to take care of his appearance—he was even considering some special methods to maintain the way he looked now.

In just a few months, he would start aging and becoming unattractive, and he didn’t want Gu Juntian to see him like that.