Chapter 78 - 77: Enhancement
Chapter 78: Chapter 77: Enhancement
The night was deep and quiet.
In the experimental zone, at the foot of the mountain, stood a five-story building covering over a thousand square meters. It was a multi-functional facility for receptions, dining, and study.
On the second floor of the multi-functional building, on a large balcony facing the back of the mountain.
Jiang Miao was lying on a beach chair, listening to the crisp chirping of cicadas outside the screen window.
The outskirts of Magong Town weren’t densely populated, so it was very quiet late at night, allowing the sound of the cicadas to be heard clearly.
A glass of warm milk was gently placed on the table beside him.
"Ah Miao, you must be tired. Let me give you a massage." Shuya sat on a small stool next to him, her hands gently kneading his shoulders.
"Have all the computers from the temporary lab been moved over?"
"Mhm, it’s done. What about on your end?"
"I’ve disabled the backdoors on all the associated computers."
Hearing this, Shuya raised an eyebrow and asked with some concern, "Will that affect the operation of the instruments and equipment?"
"It won’t affect the instruments’ research functions. They just can’t use Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, and you can’t read data through the USB ports."
Shuya was relieved to hear it wouldn’t affect their research functions. "As long as the basic functions are fine, that’s what matters. If we can’t read the data, worst-case scenario, we can just write it down by hand or use the dedicated printers to get hard copies."
Jiang Miao sat up, took a sip of his warm milk, and looked into Shuya’s eyes. "Ah Ya, how have you been feeling lately?"
"Amazing. Better than ever. I’m really curious about that traditional Chinese medicine master of yours. If he sold this formula to research institutions or commercial companies, he’d probably become a billionaire in no time." As Shuya spoke, her face filled with curiosity.
Jiang Miao shook his head with a helpless look and sighed. "He passed away in ’23. Even with medical skills like his, sometimes you just can’t escape the shackles of mortality."
"That’s a real shame. I was hoping I could learn some traditional Chinese medicine from your master." A look of regret crossed Shuya’s face. ’No wonder I’ve never met his master.’
On the surface, Jiang Miao’s face was full of regret and helplessness, but inwardly he was laughing. ’How can I tell you my master is a completely fictitious character?’
Still, he offered another explanation to dissuade Shuya from trying to learn traditional Chinese medicine, lest she go down the wrong path. "Even if my master were still alive, you’d probably have a hard time learning his signature skills. He took on a few apprentices before, but none of them managed to learn. I was the only one who grasped a part of it."
Shuya didn’t find this particularly suspicious. In her mind, the diagnostic judgment Jiang Miao displayed when treating people was indeed a unique skill she couldn’t hope to learn or comprehend.
In fact, the profound changes happening within Shuya at that moment were enormous.
These changes were what Jiang Miao had just asked her about.
For the past few months, in addition to conducting research and managing the company, Jiang Miao had also designed a very special dietary and medicinal enhancement regimen for himself, tailored to his own body and genes.
By regularly consuming specific nutrients, he had not only made his body extremely healthy but also enhanced certain functions of his brain.
That’s right. By adjusting his nutrient intake, Jiang Miao could stimulate certain genes in his body, which in turn strengthened parts of his brain.
Currently, the main changes were: his memory had improved to the point of being nearly photographic; his neural reaction speed had increased, which helped speed up his thinking; and he had activated some previously dormant neurons in his cerebral cortex.
In reality, the human brain is already highly developed; the myth that we only use 10% of our brains is just that—a myth.
However, this doesn’t mean that every individual utilizes their brain to its full 100% potential.
The reason for this is quite simple: no two people share the exact same genes, living environment, dietary habits, medications used, or viruses contracted.
No two leaves in the world are identical.
Naturally, no two humans have identical levels of brain development.
This is why some people develop Alzheimer’s in their fifties or sixties, while others in their eighties or nineties still have sharp memories and clear logical thinking.
Because every individual’s brain utilization, aging process, and pathological conditions vary tremendously, these differences lead to all sorts of changes in the brain.
For example, some neurons in the cerebral cortex, if not stimulated for a long time, will naturally become inactive or even undergo functional degradation.
For another example, long-term consumption of drugs or foods that cause minor brain damage will, over time, naturally lead to some neurons becoming diseased and non-functional.
Jiang Miao used his appraisal panel to analyze his own genes and current brain state, then ingested specific nutrients and drugs to activate some of these discarded brain neurons, which gave his cognitive abilities a significant boost.
At the same time, by appropriately activating or deactivating gene sequences related to the brain, he reduced the internal attrition of brain cells and enhanced their functional expression.
Through several months of experimentation, he discovered distinct changes in his body and brain. Most of these changes were benign, while a few malignant ones were eliminated through his iterative process of refinement.
After proving its effectiveness on himself, Jiang Miao then tailor-made a brain-enhancing dietary therapy for Shuya.
After starting this dietary plan, in just over a month, Shuya felt a noticeable change in her brain.
This change manifested as enhanced memory, faster neural reaction speed, and improved cognitive ability, giving Shuya a huge boost in her daily research work.
"Ah Miao, I feel like I’m using a cheat code!"
With her newly enhanced brainpower, Shuya had been busy in the temporary lab ever since returning from Jiang City.
After all, that feeling of a perfectly clear mind could be truly addictive during scientific research—Jiang Miao knew this from personal experience.
All sorts of knowledge collided in her mind, as if she’d had a major breakthrough, with flashes of inspiration sparking at every moment.
In the week since she’d been back, Shuya had already performed a second round of optimizations on her previous experimental data and protocols.
This time, after Jiang Miao reviewed her proposal, he found that her artificial cultivation technique for the white truffle fungus was already relatively mature. While not the optimal solution, her method could still cultivate White Truffles, though the yield per mu might be a bit lower, around 500 to 600 kilograms.
If it were Jiang Miao’s optimal method, the yield per mu could reach 700 to 800 kilograms.
However, Jiang Miao didn’t offer any further technical pointers. He intended to let Shuya research and improve it on her own.
After all, she would only feel a sense of accomplishment if she did it herself. This would also help her gradually break her dependency on Jiang Miao and become a top-tier researcher in her own right.
Jiang Miao smiled and said, "You don’t like this feeling?"
"Of course not, this feeling is amazing. But I don’t think we can make this public. It should just stay between the two of us. After all, possessing a treasure invites disaster." As Shuya spoke, her tone grew serious and grave.
Jiang Miao nodded. He was well aware of the stakes. "I know. Only the two of us know about this. I haven’t even told our parents or my sister and brother-in-law. But you don’t have to worry too much. Even if other people followed our dietary plan, they wouldn’t see any significant effects."
"That’s good. Then we have to keep this a complete secret from now on." Shuya was not a fool; she understood the terrifying consequences if this were ever exposed.
"Don’t worry, I’ve got everything under control." Jiang Miao patted her shoulder and then pulled her into his arms.
This dietary therapy was a custom plan refined down to the level of genetic targets. Therefore, for it to be effective, it had to be tailored one-on-one to an individual’s specific genes and current condition.
In other words, even if someone else followed Jiang Miao and Shuya’s dietary plan, the effects would likely be negligible, and they might even experience adverse side effects.
Because the plan is based on an individual’s physical condition and genes, it’s essentially one person, one formula. It can’t be applied on a mass scale.
But even if it could only be done one person at a time, Jiang Miao had no intention of telling anyone else. The reason was that human beings are creatures of intense jealousy.
Why were the Newtypes in *Gundam* treated with hostility by the Oldtypes?
It was because Newtypes could use gene-adjustment technology to create offspring that could completely dominate Oldtypes. In that situation, the Oldtypes would naturally be resentful and might even blame their own plight on the very existence of Newtypes.
If Jiang Miao’s ability to create artificial geniuses were exposed, he could already foresee certain future events that would inevitably erupt.
Of course, Jiang Miao wasn’t entirely selfless either. He enhanced Shuya’s brainpower because she was his wife.
The other researchers at the company were a different matter; Jiang Miao couldn’t trust them one hundred percent.
Besides, if a researcher with this kind of brain enhancement were to leave, it would be a devastating loss for Hailufeng Company.
After all, Jiang Miao and Shuya could essentially achieve photographic memory, which meant that others who underwent the enhancement could do the same.
A researcher with a photographic memory could easily memorize all the lab’s data. If that person betrayed the company, the consequences would be unimaginable.
Therefore, Jiang Miao had no plans to customize this regimen for anyone else for the time being, nor did he intend to tell anyone he even had such a plan. This matter was to be known only to him and Shuya.
After all, it was understandable for a genius or two to appear occasionally.
But if geniuses started appearing in clusters, and specifically in clusters at Hailufeng Company, even a fool would realize something was fishy.
And with a technology for creating artificial geniuses, it wasn’t just the Purple Light Pavilion that would be tempted—America and the European Union would likely be tempted as well.
Given the West’s robber-baron mentality, if they couldn’t obtain this technology, they would definitely go crazy trying to stir up trouble. Operating under the principle of "if I can’t have it, no one can," it wasn’t out of the question that the West might even provoke a war.
Therefore, in the short term, Jiang Miao had to keep this technology under a tight seal of secrecy, limiting its use to only himself and Shuya.
This was for his and his family’s safety, as well as to avoid prematurely detonating the currently tense global situation.
The fact that a husband and wife were both research geniuses wasn’t impossible. Other people would most likely just assume it was a coincidence, or a case of birds of a feather flocking together.