The Greatest Masterpiece, the Life Code

In the end, I still drank the cup of tea the doctor had poured for me.

Although I had no idea whether there was something wrong with the tea, it tasted quite good—sweet and mellow.

"Come on, I'll show you my laboratory."

The doctor took Grandpa and me on a tour of his laboratory. Fortunately, none of the bloody, horrifying scenes I had imagined appeared during the visit.

I was afraid Grandpa would be frightened.

Grandpa was an utterly ordinary old man. He could not handle that kind of shock.

Fortunately, all the laboratories the doctor showed us were perfectly conventional.

"Old man, see that? This entire floor is dedicated to genetic research. By recoding human genes, we can eliminate certain diseases and slow aging. Of course, that requires enormous investments of manpower, materials, and money. This kind of research burns through cash. You have no idea—just the genetic research on this floor costs an astronomical sum every year!"

Grandpa still would not give up and asked roughly how much it would cost.

The doctor smiled. "Several hundred billion."

Grandpa was dumbfounded. He was probably calculating what that money could buy, but with his horizons, he simply could not imagine how such a sum could even be spent.

The doctor said, "And that's only this one floor. The other laboratories aren't even included."

"Then you really are rich!" Grandpa no longer knew what to say, so he summed it all up with a single word: rich.

The doctor said nothing more and told Grandpa, "Old man, go rest in my office first. Jiang Xiaobai and I have something to take care of."

Grandpa had yet to recover from the shock. Hearing that, he did not think much of it. "All right, you two go ahead. Don't worry about me."

Grandpa