I am a necromancer, and I absolutely love America.

Chapter 98 The Living Heart and the Direction of Immortality Research (9K long chapter, please vote and subscribe)

Christina's eyes lit up: "That's amazing!"

After understanding the general situation, Christina immediately began the experiment.

Richard couldn't be of much help at the moment, so he watched for a while and then wandered around the laboratory.

This laboratory, spanning over a thousand square meters, is Christina's private lab. Under normal circumstances, no one else is allowed to enter. Occasionally, employees who have signed strict confidentiality agreements are allowed in to supplement materials or do cleaning, and even then, three people must enter together to supervise each other.

In short, this is her personal space. For a few special research projects, she might ask a student or senior scientist to come in and help, but most of the time, she is alone here.

That breakthrough that won the Nobel Prize was achieved here.

Richard examined the items but, finding no knowledge to be gained, stopped.

About 20 minutes later, Christina quickly said, "My Lord! I've taken samples from 10 points, and they're all bird cells."

Richard frowned: "Is it possible that something went wrong?"

"Impossible!" Christina said firmly. "Bird cells and human cells are very different under a microscope. Bird red blood cells are nucleated and oval in shape, while human red blood cells are anucleate and biconcave disc-shaped."

She confirmed with just a few glances that these were indeed bird cells, not human ones!

Richard pointed to the bird's forehead: "Take a little from here too, and see if there are any changes."

This is the location where he came into contact with the budgerigar and used the magic to revive the flesh golem.

"OK. I'll take 10 more samples." Christina checked for another ten minutes or so, and the results were the same as before.

Then, she added a few more tests, which would take a long time to complete and required waiting for the results.

Christina finished her work: "The conclusion is clear: it's bird cells. I'll examine the octopus cells next."

Why? Richard pondered silently.

What is taken from the fat or flesh of a living person and put into an animal will be transformed into the animal's cells?

No, the Blood Box also contains fresh fish and bird flesh, perfectly mixed together.

Or rather, the moment I remove the "fresh flesh and blood," it ceases to be flesh and blood in the scientific sense.

Based on the name, "fresh" probably refers to vitality, the origin of life, or something similar, which touches on the essence of life.

Christina's research has only just begun, and it is fraught with difficulties, with unknown darkness everywhere.

[Flesh and bones], perhaps this flesh and blood is not the flesh and blood I understand, but life itself?

So, do white bones represent death?

Is the true meaning of this branch life and death?

Why is it more difficult to extract fresh flesh and blood from fish and birds than from humans? Are their lifespans shorter?

Also, why does reviving a budgerigar require more fresh flesh and blood than reviving an octopus?

"Do you have any suggestions about this?" Richard asked.

Christina was eager to try: "Could we try to resurrect someone?"

Richard shook his head: "It's too taxing."

Based on the estimated amount of "fresh flesh and blood" extracted, liposuction would need to be performed on at least 100 to 200 people to accumulate enough to revive the entire human body.

Moreover, his [Blood Remains Box] doesn't have that much of a limit at all.

As it stands, these flesh puppets look no different from living animals, their abilities remain unchanged, and their lifespan is short.

Resurrecting humans isn't cost-effective. Maybe I could have the puppet go to the bank to withdraw money and give it to me? Richard thought casually.

It sounds pretty cool.

However, the Blood Remains Box is not big enough.

"Resurrecting a whole person would be too taxing, so how about resurrecting a severed limb?" Christina gestured, "Like a finger, a heart, or something—"

Richard immediately realized that he had fallen into a trap of habitual thinking.

According to normal human logic, resurrection is of course the resurrection of a whole body, how can a single limb be resurrected?

But this thing is not something that can be explained by current science. There is no logic to resurrecting corpses.

"That's something we can try."

Are there any requirements regarding the time of death for dismembered bodies?

"I'm not sure, I haven't tried it."

"Okay." Christina immediately picked up the intercom and called Evelyn, the only facility in the lab that could communicate with the outside world: "Send me a batch of human organs and tissues, including eyes, tongue, fingers, heart, and brain, belonging to three people, who died one week, one month, and one year ago respectively, regardless of gender."

"Okay, 15 minutes."

Christina, as the sole controller of the entire cell laboratory, is the emperor here. Her orders are executed immediately, while the specific work is naturally done by the lowly laborers.

15 minutes later.

Evelyn and an assistant personally pushed a small, portable refrigerated cart down into the ground.

Christina opened the keypad door, and Evelyn was very surprised to see Richard sitting in the laboratory as well.

Christina's affection for Richard runs deep!

She almost never lets anyone else in here, especially when she's doing her research; this place is her private kingdom.

But Richard came in.

Is Christina ready to hand over academic responsibilities to Richard?

As an academic successor, inheriting one's mentor's laboratory is indeed one of the rights of a student successor.

But Richard is only a high school student, how could he possibly understand it?

In any case, Richard is destined to be the future controller of the cell laboratory, and if I want to continue working there, I must take the most cautious approach.

Evelyn left.

The Blood Remains Chest has approximately 0.5 units remaining.

I wonder how many can be resurrected.

Richard extended his finger and gently touched his heart.

According to the sample label, the heart came from a middle-aged woman who had been dead for 35 days, but the body was well preserved.

The heart is dark red, with a shriveled surface and collapsed blood vessels, resembling a sponge that has been drained of moisture.

Fresh energy surged from Richard's fingertips, instantly enveloping his entire heart, consuming an astonishing amount of fresh flesh and blood!

It might not even be 0.01 units.

One second later, my heart skipped a beat.

Christina's eyes widened, but she still couldn't figure out if it was caused by Richard's finger pressing down.

Richard loosened his grip, and his heart skipped a beat again.

"It moved! It really moved!" Christina exclaimed in surprise.

My heart skipped a beat again and started beating.

Pfft!

Pfft!

Inside the sample tray, a dark red heart, which had been dead and shriveled for 35 days, was beating thump-thump-thump, which was extremely eerie and chilling.

Some residual blood and bodily fluids were squeezed out directly from the blood vessels, spraying out with a squelching sound.

Even Richard's own resurrected heart seemed to make him somewhat uncomfortable.

This heart looks so weird!

Christina, however, remained unfazed and even excitedly reached out to touch it.

As a researcher in the field of medical biology, she has come into contact with countless corpses and remains over the decades, all kinds of things, both animal and human, and a heart is nothing special.

"This is amazing! It really can bring people back to life!" She excitedly tried to take a sample, but her heart was pounding so hard that it was difficult to manage.

"Could you make it stop for a moment?"

Richard nodded: "Don't jump."

My heart really did stop.

A heart that can understand Richard's commands.

If the patient uses the heart I resurrected, wouldn't he die whenever I want him to?

Of course, Richard didn't need such a complicated method to kill someone; a single magical hand would suffice.

But this ability might be used to achieve certain special needs?

If it can beat, it can pump blood. No matter how badly the heart is injured, it can make it beat and restore its function. Maybe it can even be used to save lives.

Am I a necromancer or a dark healer?

Christina immediately took 20 evenly spaced points on the heart, and then Richard made the heart beat again.

Thump, thump, it was all very strange.

Richard finally felt he had a bit of the flair of a necromancer.

Evil, eerie, terrifying.

When can I get a skeleton to play with?

Normally, it's disguised as a human skeleton specimen and stands in the corner of the lab; absolutely no one would know that the thing is alive.

Christina's eyes lit up with excitement.

"That's amazing! That's amazing!"

What do human cells look like after being dead for 45 days?

The cell membrane ruptures, organelles dissolve, the nucleus shrinks or fragments, mitochondria disappear, and the entire cell becomes a mass of unstructured fragments.

The revived heart cells have intact cell membranes, clear nuclei, and distinct mitochondria, just like freshly removed living tissue.

Christina used more samples and did more tests.

Thirty minutes later, Christina finished her preparations, put the samples together for testing, and then all that was left was to wait.

The two sat together in front of the heart, watching it beat.

If this scene were released, the whole world would be in an uproar.

Richard commented, "It seems to have come back to life."

Christina nodded. "Yes, the color is brighter red. How does it function properly without blood and oxygen?"

"Let's try reviving another finger." Richard opened the finger sample.

According to the sample records, this is a male index finger, from a construction worker.

The cause of death was complications from pneumoconiosis. His skin was dry and rough, and there was black dirt embedded in his fingernails.

Richard stretched out his finger and tapped it on his fingernail.

One second later, the finger twitched, and then began to curl up, crawling around in the plate like a worm, bending and crawling.

Christina's eyes lit up.

Richard then revived the eyes, tongue, and brain.

The two sat at the table, quietly looking at the five petri dishes.

Five petri dishes contained a rolling eyeball, a finger crawling like a worm, a slapping tongue, and a pounding heart.

Finally, there's a constantly wriggling, jelly-like brain—who knows what it's thinking!

He has that mad scientist vibe.

That's so evil!

So what conclusions can we draw?

"After resurrection, the organ can restore its original function. Or rather, it is not a resurrection, but rather a temporary restoration of function."

Christina then conducted several studies and discovered that the skin on her fingers was still human skin cells.

Heart cells are also cardiac muscle cells.

All the cells are functioning normally.

"In other words, our Lord possesses something similar to pluripotent stem cells, that red liquid, which can freely transform into any cell and revive tissues, organs, and corpses, fully restoring their functions and maintaining them for a certain period of time."

Christina's heart was pounding.

She felt like she had returned to her youth, surrounded by fascinating unknowns.

"As long as it can be reproduced, it can be studied! This is a completely unknown scientific field!" Christina was very excited.

Richard nodded.

Yes, it's science!

Repeatability is a core criterion of scientific research: any objective phenomenon that can be stably and repeatedly observed and reproduced, meets the basic conditions for empirical research, and can be systematically explored using scientific methods such as controlled experiments and quantitative observation, is scientific research.

This road will be very long, and no one knows what the end will be.

Christina then took some blood samples from herself and compared them with these cells.

After repeated comparisons, Christina did not find any significant differences.

"Why is that? How does it survive without blood?"

Richard looked at his finger and suddenly said, "The skin on this finger has improved. It was rough a moment ago, but now it seems to have become smooth again. It's like the stratum corneum of the skin has been replaced."

Christina observed carefully: "Yes, this is a sign of rapid skin cell division. New skin cells grow like this. It's just incredibly fast, quite amazing. All the energy and substances needed for skin cell division have been replaced by some mysterious substance, allowing it to continuously divide and grow. What substance has replaced the functions of cellular fluid and blood?"

The two had a detailed discussion and some speculations arose.

The cells on the corpse must have all died long ago. At the moment of resurrection, the fresh flesh and blood must have revived or replicated the cells of the affected area, and magic provided the energy for cell division.

At the moment the spell was cast, a large number of cells were remodeled on the original site, and the magic provided life, thus restoring function.

During this process, the fingers have no blood but can still move; they have no nervous system but can still feel.

Magic and fresh flesh miraculously provided everything a normal physiological organism needs.

It shouldn't be provided directly. The material basis required for the normal functioning of each organ in humans and birds is different. Fresh flesh and blood should be able to be converted into various required substances, or into a unique substance X, for the body to use.

In other words, the magic of flesh and blood golems is divided into two main parts: fresh flesh and blood provide the material basis, and magic power provides the energy basis.

Of course, this is just speculation and not entirely accurate; there are still some things that cannot be explained.

For example, something can also provide signal transmission, or even a stump can understand commands!

The underlying principles are extremely complex, and may even be beyond the scope of current technology to explain, but that's how it is in the end.

In short, it will die again when its magic, fresh flesh and blood, or something else are completely depleted.

Or it doesn't count as a re-death, because it was already in a state of being both alive and dead.

It should be said that they have lost the ability to act.

Just then, some of the projects that had been tested earlier finally came to an end.

Christina glanced at it and exclaimed in surprise, "The telomere length has changed! The bird's telomere length has returned to the level of a juvenile bird."

"The cells resurrected by our Lord have telomeres of the original length of each cell, which is why the cells in this finger divide rapidly, and the skin presents the perfect state of this person in their youth."

"However, the division rate is still too fast. The skin of this finger is recovering much faster than the normal rate of epidermal cell renewal. This is probably why the resurrection duration is relatively short. If we can slow down the division rate by reducing the concentration of substance X, or use some other method, perhaps we can extend the duration of the organism's effectiveness!"

"This might open up applications, such as skin rejuvenation!"

The biggest cause of skin aging is the slowdown in the rate of epidermal cell division and proliferation. Infant skin cells divide every 20-22 days, which decreases to 25 days in young adults, reaches more than 45 days by age 40, and exceeds 75 days by age 65.

"If we could control the concentration of substance X, achieving a balance between its duration and rate of division, and make it effective on living people, we could create a product that rejuvenates the skin! Isn't that the first step towards immortality?"

Christina's eyes lit up.

Since her resurrection, she has been groping in the dark, but now she has finally found a reliable research entry point and can officially begin her real research!

Every project must first tell a good story in order to secure a steady stream of funding.

It would be great if you could turn back the clock. As long as you achieve even the slightest success, those rich and powerful people will give you their full support.

Just then, Richard heard a system notification: "Ding! You have collaborated with a life explorer to explore the mysteries of [Flesh and Bones]. Knowledge of [Flesh and Bones]: 91% → 96%."

"7

The system notification confirms that this line of thinking is correct!

Richard immediately said, "This is a very good research idea! Let's start the research. I'll cooperate with you if needed."

Lisa Anderson said with a troubled expression, "I know, Grandpa, I'll talk to him."

Brian said, "It's not just about chatting; you absolutely must build a good relationship with him. It will benefit you."

Lisa frowned and hung up the phone.

Grandpa doesn't know he has a boyfriend yet.

A Dongda student named Richard?

She wasn't particularly interested in people with yellow skin, and perhaps she needed to make things clear to Richard to avoid any misunderstandings.

I don't know which important family's second generation they are, but even my grandfather told me to take them seriously.

Lisa did not underestimate Richard's intentions at all.

Although the congressman's grandfather held an extraordinary position, he was only considered upper-middle class at Princeton, a place teeming with powerful and influential children from across the country.

Some children of the powerful and wealthy are very high-profile, while others are very low-profile. Apart from their closest friends who are of similar status, no one knows which family they come from.

Lisa will definitely not let her guard down.

Lately, for some reason, my boyfriend Leon has become somewhat distant and cold towards me.

She was already annoyed and had no energy left to deal with a mysterious man from Tokyo University.

Of course, you should talk to the other party first to see what their attitude is. The sooner you finish, the better. However, you should pay attention to your tone to avoid messing things up and angering the other party.

She felt a little scared when she thought of how angry her grandfather used to be when he was a child.

No one in the family was afraid of Brian Anderson.

As Brian Anderson's granddaughter, she was no exception.

Christina began to think about the money issue.

"This research will be very expensive because it requires a large number of corpses and a lot of manpower. I need to analyze all the substances inside the resurrected bodies to see which substances are different from those in normal people and which substances do not exist in normal people. If we can find that key substance X, extract it, dilute it, and apply it to living people, we may be able to achieve some groundbreaking results. One of them is to restore the youthfulness of the skin, and another is to restore the strength of the muscles and prevent osteoporosis."

Richard simply sat quietly, listening to Christina's analysis.

Richard thought to himself: This is a feasible research direction.

If magic influences this finger through metaphysics or mysticism, then everything is beyond research, at least until Christina figures out what magic really is.

Richard did not believe that this kind of research, which involved the origin of magic, was a simple matter, and that it might not make much progress even after decades.

Throughout the history of science, there are countless examples of questions that have remained unresolved for decades or even centuries. For instance, humanity has debated for hundreds of years whether the Earth is the center of the universe.

However, if we skip magic and go directly to find the product of magic, substance X, it becomes much simpler.

In any case, the finger seemed to be alive, crawling all over the plate.

There has to be something to provide it with glycogen, the substances and energy for cell division.

Whatever it is, there has to be something.

Therefore, Christina's task is to sample every part of this finger, analyze them one by one, and find the differences.

There are at least thousands of substances in the human body, and studying these requires a lot of manpower and funds.

What's more troublesome is that she can't even be sure whether the X substance is one type or multiple types, or whether it's disguised to look similar to ordinary substances in her body.

In short, there are still too many unknowns.

"How much money do you need?"

"At least 5000 million," Christina estimated.

Then she started calculating the funds the lab could raise.

The cell laboratory ranks among the top ten in the national biological field and is a top-tier private laboratory with an annual investment of up to $10 billion.

It seems like a lot, but much of the funds are used in a fixed way.

The more than $3 million comes from seven or eight major research projects funded by the U.S. government. These are long-term projects with contracts signed with the government, and the research topics and funding plans are clearly defined. They cannot be touched unless absolutely necessary.

Christina takes on these projects because they provide stable funding. In case of an unexpected decrease in funding one year, she still has projects to provide work for the lab staff, preventing them from leaving.

The management style of American laboratories is generally different from that of the University of Tokyo.

The laboratory here can be seen as a large research company, and the products are the research results.

PI Christina is the company's boss and the person in charge.

Every year, she spends a lot of energy finding money from all sorts of sources, including government agencies, foundations, corporate collaborations, and some private donations. In short, she has to find enough money.

Once you have money, you can hire people.

Whether they were scientists, researchers, janitors, or various administrative staff, they were all Christina's employees.

She wanted to use the money she found to pay their wages.

Professors Alaric and Arik are slightly special cases, as they are both professors and researchers at Princeton, but most people are actually just employees of the lab.

For example, Edgar, as a doctoral student, could help his supervisor in the lab, earn a little money, and accumulate papers to prepare for graduation.

The $3 million in government funds was specifically brought in by Christina to cover the shortfall.

If a problem arises with a certain fund in a certain year, these people can temporarily conduct research within the government project, giving her a buffer period.

Secondly, the largest sum is $5.5 million.

This is a collaborative project with various pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and chemical companies, totaling dozens of projects. Each project has a very specific research topic, and contracts have been signed with the companies. It's a case of getting paid to do something, and the money can't be touched.

Finally, approximately $1.5 million is a relatively flexible amount of funding.

A large portion of these donations come from unlimited donations from various research foundations.

This is the largest amount of flexible funds Christina has at her disposal.

Unrestricted donations are a common form of donation in the United States, where various foundations make non-specific donations to large laboratories for pioneering, high-risk research projects that have the potential to advance human progress.

Some foundations will share their research findings, while others will not; it varies from foundation to foundation.

In theory, Christina can research whatever she wants as long as she gets the money.

This money is the most flexible and valuable resource in the cell laboratory, and it is the crucial funding that Christina can truly use to advance her research direction.

However, the vast majority of this 1.5 million has already been invested in various projects.

Many research topics have been ongoing for years and are about to yield results, so it would be a great pity to stop now.

Moreover, many people rely on these topics to publish papers, apply for teaching positions, and obtain professional titles.

Even if Christina is the boss, she can't just cut off funding for these projects, otherwise the cell lab will never be able to hire anyone again.

Only a few projects that have just started, are not very important, and have a small impact can be terminated immediately, totaling approximately 1500 million.

In addition, she also has a PI emergency fund of about 1000 million, of which she can contribute 500 million.

Christina did a quick calculation: "I can currently scrape together about 20 million, leaving a shortfall of 30 million. I won't be able to move more budget over until the budget allocation season next June, but that's still more than half a year away, too long. I need to start looking for money."

"Is it easy to find money?"

"It's not difficult, just 3000 million." Christina was very calm. If other professors heard this, they would probably be so jealous that they would be overwhelmed by jealousy.

She glanced at the school's budget: "The school is about to receive an unlimited investment of $5000 million, with $1500 million going to the liberal arts college. I'll get at least $800 million, which leaves me with $2200 million. I'll find the rest."

As a Nobel laureate, his scientific research capabilities are beyond doubt, and his fundraising abilities are also top-notch.

After all, for most research projects, no money, no results.

"I'll write this in a notebook first," Christina typed the first sentence on the computer: "This is a cutting-edge technology for researching rejuvenation, with the ultimate goal of immortality."

Yes, that's very intimidating.

It's really nothing.

Those professors who receive unlimited funding conduct research on projects they like but cannot pass the regular project review process.

Uploading consciousness or reversing aging are all just ordinary things.

There are also researchers studying super soldiers, those studying the transfer of consciousness into animal bodies, and those studying how to make plants move—a wide variety of things.

There's nothing you can't imagine.

When the world's smartest minds unleash their creativity, it can absolutely put ordinary people to shame.

In short, this is the current state of cutting-edge scientific research.

No one knows which net will catch fish, and no one knows which scientific research will succeed, so we cast a wide net.

The price is that many people take advantage of the situation.

Some people lack the ability to conduct research, but they are quite adept at siphoning research funds into their own pockets.

However, this is the necessary financial expenditure for scientific research.

The funds actually invested in valuable scientific research may be less than 1% of all funds consumed.

But this stuff is like toilet paper; you only use about 1/10 of it each time you wipe your bottom, and most of it is wasted.

But if you want to be frugal and only use 1/10 of a toilet paper to wipe your butt each time, you'll end up with your hands covered in poop.

Besides, what's wrong with Christina, as a queen standing at the top of the biomedical field, researching immortality and rejuvenation?

Richard packed his things and left the laboratory.

The remaining research was beyond his capabilities and required Christina to lead it.

Richard left the lab and met Edgar.

Ivan Lee also arrived.

They really are three nuclear-powered bulls and horses.

Ivan Lee looked miserable, with flames of anger flickering above his head. Perhaps he was bullied at the party?

Edgar was alright, but he couldn't sit still like a monkey, and he had dark circles under his eyes. I wonder if he stayed up all night playing games last night.

Considering that NERDs in America have no human rights and their mate selection criteria are lower than those of dogs, he can probably only play games all night.

Edgar, seeing Richard, said with a mixture of envy and schadenfreude, "I heard you got into Professor Shepard's private laboratory?"

Richard nodded: "The news travels really fast."

Edgar finally felt relieved.

"Great! You're finally getting some work done, I'm so relieved!"

Edgar felt that the smart drugs he took today were particularly effective.

As Christina's youngest student, although he was highly regarded and had a bright future, it was incredibly painful.

He doesn't want the Nobel Prize; he just wants to live a good life.

Richard used to leave early, which worried her a lot: Christina, you can't show favoritism to this guy!

Now things are looking up. Richard has been pulled into the lab around Christmas and is finally getting some real work done!

It turns out that the previous period was just preparation time for Christina to handle miscellaneous tasks for Richard. Now that Richard has finished his other miscellaneous tasks, he is finally going to enter the laboratory, and the first thing he enters is Christina's private laboratory.

awesome!

He almost laughed out loud just thinking about it.

Richard knew Edgar was gloating, but he just shrugged and turned away.

The project to find Substance X is about to begin, and it will inevitably be combined with the previous research on skin anti-aging. As the PI, Edgar is destined to be involved in the project.

Just settle down and be my beast of burden.

Ivan-Lee muttered to himself, "Hmph, it's just going into a lab. Look at how smug he is, does he even know all the lab equipment?"

While he was feeling miserable, he also thought that Christina was a blind teacher who didn't recognize him as the real genius!

Hmph, I'll win the Nobel Prize someday too. This lazy pretty boy is destined to achieve nothing.

Cole-Barnes bit his lip again, a feeling he couldn't quite describe welling up inside him.

He spent over a decade taking handfuls of "smart drugs" before finally getting into a cell laboratory.

He thought he had already achieved great success, but then Richard came in. He never came to the lab, did nothing, and would leave after two or three hours. Yet he still gained Professor Shepard's trust and was allowed into the private lab.

This made him increasingly unable to hold back.

What right does a student from an enemy country have to do this?!

Why was Richard allowed into the core department of the cell laboratory?

Edgar didn't care what the two of them thought. He picked up the small cookies on the table and started munching on them, in a great mood.

"When is Senior Daniel coming? We've finished all the cookies."

He chuckled foolishly.

Richard drove to the residential college.

For some time afterward, he would need to provide flesh-and-blood puppets as research materials for the cell laboratory, which might require him to come over frequently.

The cell laboratory can certainly provide him with some opportunities for dissection, but it's impossible for him to have hundreds of corpses to play with every day.

Christina could cover up the dissection of one or two corpses, but prolonged dissections would attract unnecessary attention.

I'm not in a hurry; I'll prioritize playing it safe.

Therefore, OCME cannot be abandoned. It is a very important source of corpses, which can still provide a small amount of [Flesh and Bone] knowledge, as well as a large amount of death energy and souls, to slowly upgrade the ring.

There's also the Katarina Clinic, which provides a large quantity of fresh flesh and blood and can earn a little bit of money there.

Roger Howard isn't in the dorm; I don't know where he's off hanging out.

Richard was able to finally get some rest in his dorm room.

It was a little after 10 a.m. the next day.

My phone rang; it was an unfamiliar number.

Richard answered the phone, and a young female voice came from the other end.

"Hey Richard, I'm Lisa Anderson, and my grandfather is Brian Anderson."

Richard was surprised that the other party would actually contact him.

"Hello," Richard said with a smile.

In a sense, she was one of our own.

"Grandpa asked me to contact you. I heard you were already studying at Princeton's summer program during high school, studying under Dr. Shepard. You're a true genius!"

Lisa's praise sounded somewhat forced.

Richard chuckled. "Just lucky. What's your major?"

Lisa, from "Public and International Affairs," offered proactively: "Shall we have lunch together?"

Richard readily agreed: "Sure."

"Then it's settled. We look forward to your arrival."

Lisa's words were polite, but carried an indescribable sense of distance.

Richard didn't pay attention and hung up the phone.

It was noon.

Richard arrived at a quiet coffee shop in a corner of the school.

There is a Christmas tree at the entrance, decorated with fairy lights and golden bells.

Stepping into the coffee shop, you'll find floor-to-ceiling windows, a dark brown solid wood dining table, matte sofas, warm yellow lighting, and the aroma of freshly ground coffee beans and baked desserts filling the air.

There was a grand piano in the corner, and only three or four well-dressed students were chatting quietly in the store, while a pianist was still playing soft music.

This place looks expensive; he wouldn't have come here if Lisa hadn't arranged it.

Richard saw a well-mannered, quiet girl with an ordinary appearance, but she wore just the right amount of light makeup and had some freckles on her face. Only her eyes were particularly attractive, curving like crescent moons.

She wore a conservative beige long dress with a knitted shawl, simple and understated, but the fabric looked expensive.

"Hey Lisa, it's Richard."

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