Let's Build One Ourselves

At 5:30 in the evening, the early spring sunset spilled like golden specks over the laboratory building of Jiangcheng University, painting the entire structure's glass windows in a warm, tangerine hue.

Inside Chen Yusheng's private office, the light gradually dimmed.

Chen Yusheng sat in an ergonomic chair, her slender, fair fingers flying across the keyboard. With a final press of the Enter key, the complex underlying control algorithm on the screen was finally saved.

She rubbed her high-bridged nose wearily and let out a soft sigh of relief.

"Click."

The office door swung open, and Su Bai strode in with large steps.

Hearing the sound, Chen Yusheng's originally cool, tense face instantly melted into a sweet smile. "You finished? Where have you been all afternoon? I sent you messages on WeChat, but you didn't reply."

Su Bai closed the door behind him and walked over with a grin. "I went to find you some fun. Here, don't move—let me give you a massage."

Naturally, he stood behind Chen Yusheng, his long, warm hands settling on her rounded shoulders, applying just the right pressure as he kneaded.

Chen Yusheng leaned back obediently, sinking into Su Bai's broad, warm embrace.

It had gotten colder today, and she was wearing the dark gray wool skirt that Su Bai had picked out for her that morning; the fabric was thick and elegant.

But in her seated position, the hem had naturally crept up, revealing the edge of tight black stockings against her thigh, casting an extreme contrast of allure in the dim light.

Su Bai's hands roamed across her shoulders and neck, gently caressing the soft skin at the nape of her neck.

"Mmm... feels good," Chen Yusheng murmured, closing her eyes with a satisfied purr, like a kitten. Under Su Bai's masterful technique, the exhaustion of the afternoon vanished, and a warmth spread through her body.

"Yusheng," Su Bai said unhurriedly as he continued massaging, "I had that meeting with the Sports Science Lab people this afternoon."

"Oh? How did it go?" Chen Yusheng opened her eyes, turning her head curiously to look at him. "Professor Tang's group has quite a reputation on campus. I heard they've taken on horizontal projects from sports brands before. Their tech should be pretty solid, right?"

Su Bai let out a scoff, pressing a little harder. "Solid? Yeah, solid enough—their methods for faking things are so mature, it's staggering."

Chen Yusheng froze, her beautiful eyes widening. "Faking? What do you mean?"

Su Bai then told her everything Zhou Jian had confided to him in the hallway.

"That surface EMG signal acquisition system they claim to have built? The core filtering algorithm and hardware design are all directly copied from an open-source community overseas. They just slapped a shell on it and called it independent research. What's more, the algorithm is unstable—once the movement gets intense, the signal is all noise. Those pretty waveform graphs Li Guobing showed me? All hand-drawn 'art pieces' he faked using software later on."

Su Bai gave a cold laugh and continued. "And that infrared optical motion capture system? The camera calibration is a complete mess, and the reflective marker positions drift all over the place. During experiments, the junior students had to manually correct the data point by point with a mouse in the background. Then they picked the best set of static data and stuffed it into the report, boasting about millimeter-level precision. But in real motion, the error could be up to ten or twenty centimeters."

"Professor Tang took 300,000 RMB in R&D funding from a shoe company last year, and all he delivered were a few PowerPoint presentations and some fluff papers. The company owner is still suing the school over it. Now he's trying to get investment from White Night Holdings to cover the holes and polish up Li Guobing's PhD graduation results."

After hearing Su Bai's account, Chen Yusheng's face turned ice-cold.

As a genius with an almost obsessive devotion to scientific rigor, academic fraud was the one thing she could least tolerate.

"This is outrageous!" Chen Yusheng slapped the armrest in indignation. "Academic fraud is one thing, but trying to use this watered-down data to scam investment from White Night Holdings?! How could Professor Tang do this? And that PhD student, Li Guobing—he's not putting any effort into real research, just thinking about how to package fake data to get money!"

"In any large forest, there are all kinds of birds," Su Bai said with a grin, pinching her flushed cheek. "But thanks to that PhD student, Zhou Jian—he's honest and couldn't stand their faking. He risked not graduating to come and tell me the truth."

Chen Yusheng sighed, sinking back into Su Bai's arms with a hint of disappointment. Her voice dropped. "So this lab is completely useless. I was hoping that if their tech was solid, we could soon customize top-tier outdoor gear for the sisters. Looks like that plan has to be put on hold."

She took his hand and guided him to sit on the chair beside her, then settled herself onto his lap.

Chen Yusheng looped her arms around Su Bai's neck, resting her head on his shoulder, and spoke softly. "Actually, Big Goose, we don't have to push for this. If you're not really set on investing in this venture and don't mind dropping it, then we just won't do it."

"Custom gear's off?" Su Bai raised an eyebrow, wrapping an arm around her slender waist.

Chen Yusheng's face reddened slightly. She shyly buried her head deeper into his chest, her voice barely a whisper. "Anyway... the main reason we're planning this camping trip isn't really for mountain climbing or exploring. It's so that—well—we can have legitimate time alone, to work on having a child. As for the professional gear, it's not that important. The big-name brands at regular stores are good enough for us."

When she said "working on having a child," her breathing grew noticeably quicker.

Clearly, she had been especially eager about this lately.

Su Bai looked at her blushing earlobes, couldn't resist biting one gently, and teased, "So Scientist Chen's interest isn't really in the wild. The camping's just a cover—what you really want is to gobble me up, isn't that right?"

"You—what nonsense are you saying!" Chen Yusheng was flustered. She lightly punched his chest and protested, "I'm thinking about our future! Do you want to or not?!"

"Of course, of course." Su Bai laughed heartily and pulled her closer, but then his expression turned serious. "Still, Yusheng, I still intend to go through with the business of this sports science lab."

Chen Yusheng froze, straightening up to look at him, her eyes full of confusion. "Huh? Why? If Jiangcheng University's lab isn't reliable, are you going to find another team elsewhere? But in China, there really aren't any standout civilian research institutions in this field. If you want something dependable, you might have to look abroad."

Su Bai shook his head. "No, I'm not going to look for a partner. I plan for us to build one ourselves."

"Build it ourselves?" Chen Yusheng was taken aback.

"Yes, build it ourselves." Su Bai had his hands in his pockets, his gaze fixed on the gradually brightening campus streetlights outside the window. His voice was calm but carried an undeniable weight of conviction.

"I've looked into it. Domestically, the fields of civilian sports science, high-end health management, and smart customized equipment are nearly a blank slate right now. The country's current investment priorities are mainly focused on big areas like national defense, heavy industry, chips, and competitive sports. Civilian sports science just isn't a high priority for investment."

"But as people's living standards improve, the demand for outdoor activities, physical health, and personalized customization is actually experiencing explosive growth. The reason those top foreign outdoor brands can command such high premiums is precisely because they have massive sports science databases and ergonomics labs backing them up."

Su Bai turned his head and gave Chen Yusheng a slight smile. "Baiye Holdings has plenty of money now. Letting it sit idle in accounts is just letting it gather mold. Since I have the ability, I should do something good for everyone. We'll fund it ourselves, build a completely independent sports science lab—one not tainted by any academic water—down. Recruit the best talent, buy the most expensive equipment, and fill this gap domestically. From now on, not just ourselves, but all outdoor enthusiasts in China will be able to use top-tier gear truly suited to the Chinese body structure."

Su Bai's words were logical and backed by reason. His grand vision left Chen Yusheng momentarily stunned.

She stared blankly at the man before her. On ordinary days, Su Bai was always messing around, teasing her, and enjoying watching her wear all kinds of strange stockings.

But when it came to serious matters, the insight, boldness, and that heavy sense of social responsibility he displayed radiated an irresistible, deadly charm.

"You... you bast--" Chen Yusheng bit her red lips, a mix of admiration and playful reproach sparkling in her beautiful eyes. "Since when did you become so full of ideals? I thought you only ever thought about how to mess with us."

"That's called 'with great power comes great responsibility.'" Su Bai chuckled slyly, and his big hand once again began to wander impudently along the hem of her nylon skirt.

"Stop it, this is the office..."

Chen Yusheng blushed and tried to push him away, but she couldn't budge him at all.

Just as they were in the middle of their intimate exchange, a crisp system notification sound suddenly and without warning rang out in Su Bai's mind.

"Ding!"

The sound was so abrupt that Su Bai's movements paused slightly.

[Detected host's strong investment intention and grand business plan. System mission triggered!]

Su Bai's heart stirred, and he immediately diverted a thread of his consciousness into the system interface.

A translucent blue virtual screen slowly unfurled in his mind, with lines of golden text rapidly generating on it.

[New Mission: Establish [Sports Science Laboratory] under Baiye Holdings Independent Operations!]

[Mission Description: Host's subsidiary, Baiye Holdings, is to fully fund the construction of a top-tier sports science laboratory that operates completely independently and remains unaffected by external academic trends. Host must independently select a location, procure world-class research equipment, and recruit genuinely talented scientific researchers dedicated to the interdisciplinary R&D of human sports biomechanics, material science, and smart wearable devices, breaking foreign technological monopolies.]

[Mission Reward: 500 million RMB startup funds! (These funds have been legally and compliantly injected into Baiye Holdings' dedicated account, available for immediate use, with no tax risks.)]

Seeing the words "500 million startup funds," Su Bai couldn't help but raise an eyebrow.

The system was as generous as ever, handing out five hundred million at once. With that money, building just one lab would be more than enough to construct a small research park.

However, the system's prompts didn't stop there.

[Special Note: This mission will activate the "Laboratory Strength Scoring System."]

[Current Laboratory Strength Score: 0/100.]

[Scoring Rules: The system will comprehensively evaluate and score based on the laboratory's venue size, advancement of instruments and equipment, overall strength of scientific personnel, completeness of underlying databases, and subsequent research results and patent outputs.]

[Subsequent Rewards: The Laboratory Strength Score is divided into five tiers (10 points, 30 points, 50 points, 80 points, 100 points). Each time the score reaches a tier target, the system will automatically judge the tier as completed and grant the host a high volume of free attribute points and various god-level skill rewards!]