(Switch to Jinyu's POV)
"Finally, my rabbit's gonna live long." That simple glimmer of hope that had come true became the foundation for all things I was about to achieve.
What began as my desperate attempt to defy the forces of nature turned into YSHT's flagship product — the Longevity Serum that would eventually disrupt the whole pet care market. It was.
Because of my idea, it became an actual product that could help animals age like humans. It was officially called the "Longevity Serum" before it was released to the public. My parents knew it would be a massive product, so they started to advertise it on billboards as a "Coming Soon" product, featuring stylish animals and a bunch of other white bunnies like Jiaxin. Once it was out, people started buying more and more of it for their pets, and I wanted to solve more problems that pets had, and it only made YSHT more dominant in the pet care market. I barely noticed - all I cared about was that first successful trial where Jiaxin nuzzled my hand after injection, blissfully unaware I'd just rewritten her biological destiny into far better circumstances than I expected.
It was in primary school, around a year or 2 after my idea came to life. Since I was given a project for science, I decided to present a biotech model of the Longevity serum. Unsurprisingly, my teachers gave me an instant 100. Not only that, since I was very passionate about the subject, they even recommended me to submit it to a national science competition. They only helped me with inputting it in the forms and how to properly demonstrate it, I ended up getting first place.
I helped classmates get their scores better too and made some friends who were like-minded with me.
From then on, for almost all of my science project scores, I just presented more of my ideas that came to life because of the help of the researchers at my dad's company, I kind of tried to help with them too. I was also winning biotech fairs, international science olympiads, even stuff meant for college students left and right. Almost all my other ideas turned into new products for the company.
By the beginning of secondary school, I had made a lot of friends from university. Professors from the top universities always "coincidentally" visited the school whenever I presented in the school's science fairs; what should have been a project for a university student is being made by someone in 8th grade. The news even started mentioning my name because of how all my ideas were all good and how they would work made sense, the massive amount of competition awards I got were the start of it. They were also wondering how I managed to come up with stuff like this and make YSHT a potential powerhouse in the skincare industry.
Even as the trophies and achievements started piling up and YSHT's stock soared, there were nights where the weight of it all just crushed me. The first time I collapsed from exhaustion was at 15, it was because of going 72 hours straight to try to test out my new theory. All of that hard work for the past 3 days without sleep, just for it to fail.
It was 3:17 am in Xuhuang HQ's R&D lab as I was sitting on the cold chair. I thought I'd calculated the dosage of each chemical should be inserted perfectly, but the rat still ended up flatlining anyway. The monitors had loud alarm sounds, and my hands reeked of antiseptic and death. My underestimation got the best of me.
A choked sound escaped my throat. I was flabbergasted at what just happened, I slapped a hand over my mouth — strong guys don't cry over lab rodents—nevertheless, the amount of guilt that I immediately felt still made tears stream down my face.
Jiaxin was in the corner, eating and chilling in the opened carrier bag with her carrots and toys. She saw my condition and quickly came to me, her paws skidding on spilled saline. What she brought along with her? a hay ball.
"...The hell is this?" my voice cracked.
She stared up at me, ears drooping — then booped her nose against my leg.
I laughed. It came out ugly, but Jiaxin's ears perked up instantly, trying to climb onto me. She was happy that I wasn't crying anymore. I picked her up onto my lap.
I was genuinely so exhausted and wanted to get rid of the guilty feelings, so I slept on the lab table and ended up not being able to wake up when the researchers approached me in the morning. I was then taken to a hospital. I woke up to the scent of hay and a warm weight on my chest.
Jiaxin had burrowed under the blankets, her nose pressed to my collarbone. When I groaned, she started kneading my shirt with her paws like I was a wounded pet instead of her owner.
"Stupid," I muttered, but my fingers still tangled in her fur anyway. She didn't care about my trophies or my patents.
By high school, I was featured in magazines. Titles like "Young Prodigy Behind Xuhuang's Rising Empire!" with me on the cover were starting to be frequent occurrences for me. While others were focused on trying to get prom dates, I was hustling in investor meetings for funding my patents to life. A lot of girls started to "coincidentally" study biology in the library during breaks beside me and even tried to talk to me. Some even tried throwing themselves at me and giving me expensive gifts, but I ignored their advances. I only had one priority, which was to create more products for Jiaxin.
As I saw several of my classmates start working out, I started reading the scientifically correct way to do it (which I've been doing since the first year of secondary and actually apply it to my own workouts as I got influenced as well. The gymbros used to mock me hard with names like "lab-monkey physique" to begging for training regimens after I demonstrated perfect deadlift form using biomechanical algorithms.
"Bro," panted our basketball captain after I optimized his protein intake, "you're telling me I've been wasting money on that overpriced whey?"
"It's like you're flushing your money down the toilet." I confirmed, "Like how your drills are only 34% effective."
The other students around started cheering as I clocked a person who used to mock me hard.
Because of this, I easily got in Yale's Bioengineering program without my parents needing to sponsor a big amount, me even going there would already be an increase for their reputation, I already had so much going on in my portfolio without having to pretend like I run a nonprofit organization. If anything, from my experience, most of the teachers already recommended me to be in the science section of the school organization, which I ended up leading.
I ended up graduating with cumlaude. Of course, I literally studied it every day; it's my passion.
Honestly, the only reason I couldn't get into college directly at the age of 13 or 14 was because of the age requirements, besides, I got a bunch of school experience because of it.
Now, at the age of 25, my parents entrusted me with the CEO title for YSHT; of course, I know how the business works, I've been in the game since birth.
The world saw a child prodigy reshaping an industry. The truth was simpler: I was still that four-year-old in a pet store, bargaining with the universe to keep his rabbit alive. Just now, I had better leverage.