Interstellar president (9): President Zhou must have known about Gu Juntian’s abilities for a long time!

On the third day after renting the lab, as usual, Gu Juntian went to the lab after breakfast.

Thanks to the overnight efforts of the ten researchers, the lab was now in perfect order. Gu Juntian then led the researchers to begin the initial preparations for the experiment.

The main task was for him and the researchers to discuss research directions and methods together.

During this time, Cao Bo sent over a few more researchers.

Gu Juntian did not allow Cao Bo and his team into the core area of the lab. Every time a new person arrived, he would have Qin Zhao receive them and hand them a pile of materials, instructing them to listen in from the side.

Qin Zhao was not very satisfied with this.

He didn’t want to miss a single word from Gu Juntian.

He protested, so Gu Juntian gave him an earpiece so he could both receive newcomers and listen to what was being said in the meeting room at the same time.

Only then did Qin Zhao become happy.

Clement was a researcher Cao Bo had poached from Minghui at great expense.

He had once been Qin Zhao’s colleague and was no less talented than him.

But unlike Qin Zhao, Clement cared more about money than about the ideal of scientific research, so he had never considered leaving Minghui—until Cao Bo offered him a high price.

Both of Clement’s parents had developed gene collapse disorder one after the other. He couldn’t just watch them die, so he put them in medical pods, which required a huge sum of money.

Zhou Qinghao was unwilling to live in a medical pod, but many others were.

Although their physical bodies would be confined, by using holographic helmets, they could live freely in the digital world.

Some people had been extremely busy before falling ill, and it wasn’t until they lived in the medical pods during their final years that they could finally enjoy playing games and watching shows to their heart’s content.

But the cost of using a medical pod was not low, and many families simply couldn’t afford it.

Clement was a senior researcher at Minghui, earning over a million annually, enough to cover his parents’ medical expenses, but it was still a heavy burden.

After all, he also had to support his family and wanted to save up a fund for himself and his wife to use medical pods in the future.

While his own genes hadn’t collapsed yet, he intended to work hard and save money. Once his genes did collapse, he would lie in a pod and enjoy everything the internet had to offer.

“Why the rush? I just quit my job, and now I have to start a new one immediately? This is too much!” Clement complained to Cao Bo.

If Cao Bo hadn’t offered such a high price, he wouldn’t have come at all!

Originally, he had planned to take a few days off between jobs.

Cao Bo said, “I’m really sorry, but the lab is extremely busy and pushing hard, so we can only trouble you.” Gu Juntian had told him that if those researchers couldn’t show up today, they didn’t need to come at all—he should just assign them elsewhere.

Helplessly, he kept increasing the pay and delivered the researchers he’d worked so hard to recruit directly to Gu Juntian.

As for those who hesitated or tried to bargain for more, he simply gave up on them.

“Is Qin Zhao suffering from gene collapse disorder and running out of time, so he’s desperate to start research?” Clement asked.

According to the contract he had signed with Minghui, resigning required a three-month notice. To extract him from Minghui in the shortest time possible, Cao Bo had paid over ten million in penalties.

He felt it would’ve been better if that money had just gone directly to him!

“That shouldn’t be the case,” Cao Bo replied. Although the lab was founded by Gu Juntian, Cao Bo was now in charge of managing it. He had reviewed all the health reports of the incoming researchers, and none of them had gene collapse disorder.

Clement muttered a few complaints as he followed Cao Bo into the lab.

He had heard Cao Bo mention the situation of the lab and knew it was registered under Gu Juntian’s name. Cao Bo had recruited him based on Qin Zhao’s recommendation.

Minghui’s lab was large, and Clement didn’t know many of the people who had interned there.

But he did know Gu Juntian.

Gu Juntian was very handsome, which made him memorable.

After Gu Juntian resigned from Minghui, Clement had even looked into the situation.

Gu Juntian was indeed talented, but he was just an ordinary intern with no real capability to run a lab.

Clement, like Cao Bo, believed that the real person in charge of the lab was Qin Zhao.

Cao Bo pressed the doorbell, and Qin Zhao came out from inside to receive them.

When Clement saw that it was Qin Zhao who came to receive him, he became even more certain that Qin Zhao was in charge of the lab. “Qin Zhao, are you planning to continue your research? Let me tell you, your research has certain flaws…”

“Don’t talk. Be quiet,” Qin Zhao said. Gu Juntian was talking about something important, and he didn’t want to miss a word.

Seeing Qin Zhao’s cold expression, Clement was a bit displeased.

At Minghui, he had a status no lower than Qin Zhao’s. He only came to Qin Zhao’s lab because of the money. But Qin Zhao shouldn’t treat him like an ordinary researcher to order around.

“Qin Zhao, I need to have a serious talk with you…”

“You talk too much.” Qin Zhao grabbed Clement’s hand and pulled him into the lab.

Then, he threw a stack of pre-prepared materials at Clement and said, “Listen quietly.”

Clement was stunned. They spent so much money to bring him here, and this was how they treated him?

He had thought that if Qin Zhao paid millions in breach-of-contract fees and gave him a huge salary, it meant he was highly valued!

Clement really wanted to keep questioning Qin Zhao, but everyone around him was focused on listening to Gu Juntian and constantly taking notes.

Influenced by those around him, he started listening too. And once he did, Clement became excited—he couldn’t stop.

What Gu Juntian was explaining was completely different from anything he had previously learned or encountered.

It was a whole new kind of knowledge—anyone with the desire to learn would want to explore it.

Clement focused intently and occasionally flipped through the materials in front of him.

It was then that he realized that this lab was truly led by Gu Juntian.

Why hadn’t he noticed how outstanding Gu Juntian was back at Minghui?

But with the way things operated at Minghui, it was true that someone like Gu Juntian couldn’t fully display his talents.

Clement finally understood why Qin Zhao had looked so sour-faced when picking him up earlier.

Now, he himself didn’t want to leave his seat to go outside.

After speaking for a while, Gu Juntian called on Clement by name, started chatting with him, and asked him some questions.

Although Gu Juntian had been frantically studying the materials, there were still some areas where he didn’t know as much as researchers like Clement.

However, in his conversations with these people, he naturally absorbed all kinds of knowledge, which was excellent.

Gu Juntian had reviewed the background of every researcher.

That day, he explained many things to them and also spoke individually with each one. By the time he left the lab, his voice was hoarse, and he didn’t feel like talking at all.

As soon as he got in the car, he collapsed on the sofa seat and didn’t move. When he got home and saw Zhou Qinghao waiting for him at the dining table, he finally felt revived again.

“Qinghao!” Gu Juntian called out as he walked up and kissed Zhou Qinghao.

He didn’t like Zhou Qinghao taking the lead in their relationship, so the only option was for him to take the initiative!

Zhou Qinghao let his little lover kiss him, eyes filled with a smile.

Falling in love before he died had been the best decision he ever made.

When the kiss ended, Zhou Qinghao asked, “What happened to your voice?”

He had no objection to Gu Juntian calling him “Qinghao.”

Compared to titles like “President Zhou,” he much preferred hearing his own name from Gu Juntian.

But today, something was clearly wrong with Gu Juntian’s voice.

Gu Juntian said, “I talked too much during the day.”

“I’ll ask the doctor to bring you some medicine,” Zhou Qinghao replied.

Gu Juntian nodded.

After dinner, the family doctor arrived.

Zhou Qinghao had made no attempt to hide the fact that he had a boyfriend.

Over the past few days, Gu Juntian had kept Zhou Qinghao’s assistant and secretary extremely busy to help get the lab running smoothly.

The family doctor had long known about Gu Juntian’s presence—in fact, Zhou Qinghao had previously asked him for medication to treat certain… injuries.

This time, when Zhou Qinghao contacted him, the doctor immediately thought of certain plots he’d read in novels: like a domineering CEO playing too roughly with his lover, who ends up injured or something similar.

But in reality, Zhou Qinghao only asked him to prepare medicine to treat and protect the throat.

When the doctor arrived at Zhou Qinghao’s villa, he saw their president’s young lover sitting at the dining table, earnestly studying materials from the Human Alliance National Library.

This love story… had no drama at all. You couldn’t even make a good TV series out of it.

The medicine the doctor brought was very effective.

After taking it, Gu Juntian’s throat immediately felt better—he felt like he could talk all day again tomorrow.

That night, Gu Juntian once again slept with Zhou Qinghao. The two were deeply affectionate and incredibly happy.

Meanwhile, in Gu Juntian’s lab, the researchers were still working through the night.

That day had been extremely busy for Cao Bo, but by evening, most of his tasks were complete.

Finally having some free time, Cao Bo checked in on the lab researchers—especially those who had expressed some dissatisfaction when they were first brought in.

Surprisingly, when he reached out to them, they each said:

“I’m doing great—everything is fine.”

“I’m not going home tonight, and probably won’t go home for a while.”

“Do I need help with anything? Yes, please help take care of my family. I’m too busy right now to manage it myself.”

…

Cao Bo: “…” Was Qin Zhao’s brainwashing ability really this strong?

These people had only been here for a day, and they were already willing to work overnight for Qin Zhao?

Cao Bo was baffled—deeply shocked.

In the blink of an eye, a new day arrived.

As usual, Gu Juntian arrived at the lab early, and immediately began working intensively on research with the lab team.

The lab was already up and running, but there were still follow-up matters to handle—for example, the researchers’ dormitories hadn’t yet been properly set up.

A couple of days ago, Cao Bo had only sent them some basic bedding. He had no idea how they had even managed to sleep…

Today, Cao Bo brought security robots and household robots to help with daily tasks.

He also intended to ask the researchers if they needed anything else.

But after wandering around the lab’s perimeter for quite a while without seeing a single researcher, he had no choice but to request permission from Gu Juntian.

Gu Juntian had a robot open the door for Cao Bo and let him in.

Cao Bo was someone he could trust.

Besides, many things in the future would require Cao Bo’s help, so Gu Juntian didn’t mind letting him see the lab’s internal situation.

He hadn’t intentionally kept things from Cao Bo before—Cao Bo had just been too busy, and he didn’t want to disturb him.

Once inside, Cao Bo saw a group of researchers dressed in various outfits, fully focused on their work. Gu Juntian was surrounded by several of them, deep in discussion.

As Cao Bo walked closer, he realized that one of the researchers around Gu Juntian was Clement—the one they had spent a fortune to recruit.

Wait a minute… something felt off. Why did it seem like Clement had a particularly deferential attitude toward Gu Juntian?

Just then, Cao Bo saw Qin Zhao hurrying over from a distance and calling out to Gu Juntian, “Teacher, I’ve run into some problems over there. Can you come take a look?”

At first, Qin Zhao had wanted to take Gu Juntian as his disciple and have him call him “teacher.”

But now, he only wanted to be Gu Juntian’s student.

Without even getting Gu Juntian’s permission, he had already started calling him “teacher.”

“I’ll go take a look,” Gu Juntian said, walking forward as Qin Zhao followed beside him, explaining the problem he had encountered.

Gu Juntian walked over to Qin Zhao’s workbench.

At first, he didn’t have a solution either. But after a few attempts, he figured it out: “You can handle it like this…”

Qin Zhao nodded repeatedly, jotting down everything Gu Juntian said, while Clement—who had come over to watch—suddenly realized, “So that’s how it works!”

Qin Zhao went back to focusing on his research, and Clement returned to his own experiments as well.

Finally, Gu Juntian had a moment to speak with Cao Bo. “There are still quite a few things missing in the lab. Please make a list. Tonight, have the researchers fill it out so we can select the most suitable bedding to ensure they can sleep well. Also, get two full sets of clothing—inner and outer—for each researcher so they can rotate them.”

During experiments, researchers wore protective suits, so their clothes wouldn’t get dirty. Plus, the household robots did laundry frequently. Two sets of clothes were more than enough.

Too many clothes would only distract them by giving them unnecessary choices.

After finishing the instructions about bedding and clothing, Gu Juntian added, “Food needs to be properly handled too. Prepare a good amount of fresh ingredients, and let the household robots do the cooking. You can also create a list to ask what each of them likes to eat, and make sure to prepare some of their favorites every day.”

“I’ll take care of it,” Cao Bo replied instinctively, and then suddenly realized that the way he was responding to Gu Juntian was exactly how he spoke to Zhou Qinghao.

Right now, Gu Juntian had such a commanding presence that it felt like he was facing a powerful boss.

At the same time, Cao Bo realized that Gu Juntian wasn’t just some reckless kid like he had assumed at first.

Gu Juntian was truly capable of running a lab.

Cao Bo wanted to report this to Zhou Qinghao, but then he realized: Zhou Qinghao had probably known from the very beginning.

Otherwise, when he burned through the lab’s entire 50 million budget on the very first day, Zhou Qinghao wouldn’t have simply transferred 500 million without a word.

President Zhou was never the kind of person who got blinded by love. Even if he had a lover, he would never indulge him in nonsense.

And his standards were very high—he wouldn’t be interested in just anyone.

He must’ve known what Gu Juntian was capable of from the start!

“I’m still short on some supplies—help me get these,” Gu Juntian said as he handed Cao Bo another list.

Cao Bo glanced at it briefly and saw that it would cost a lot—but he didn’t question it at all: “Young Master Gu, don’t worry. I’ll get it all as soon as possible!”