"Professor Yi, are you free tomorrow?" Tony Snow typed, firing off a message to Professor Ethan Harper.
No response.
Professor Harper was probably busy again. Tony set his phone aside and turned back to his laptop.
On the screen was a detailed lab protocol he was drafting. This experiment was based on a future Biology patent that wouldn't appear in the academic world for another five to seven years. Tony was documenting every aspect: procedures, equipment needed, estimated timeline, temperature and pH ranges, predicted yield, control variables—everything a research team would need to replicate the work from scratch.
Tony had already made a decision: patents would belong to his company. That way, when the time came, the profits, IP rights, and industry traction would all loop back into his ecosystem.
But there was a problem—money.
His newly registered startup was still little more than a name and a handful of Google Docs. Even with his student entrepreneurship loan, the funds wouldn't be enough to cover high-end lab equipment, facility rental, and salaries for trained researchers.
He needed angel investment. Fast.
At present, he had two candidates in mind.
One was Michelle Carter, an investor he had already met during a previous project.
The other? Professor Ethan Harper himself. Harper, aside from being a university researcher, also ran his own bio-informatics consultancy on the side.
Tony's first goal was to bring Harper into the fold.
Once the company had seed capital, he could hire the first round of assistants—Greg Xu and Gwen Shaw—and begin experiments under Harper's mentorship. That would cover talent, logistics, and research legitimacy all in one go.
After typing out the last section of the protocol and double-checking the diagrams, Tony leaned back in his chair and sighed.
He glanced at the time. The library was closing in ten minutes.
"Guess that's enough science for one day," Tony muttered, resting his chin in his palm.
His eyes drifted sideways—to Clara Quinn.
She was reading, her fingers tracing lines of a biology textbook, her brow furrowed in focus. He hadn't paused to really look at her in days. Between paperwork, startup logistics, patent drafts, and simulated insights from the life simulator, he'd been too caught up in the future to enjoy the present.
"Hey," he said softly. "Let's get married after you graduate?"
Clara blinked. "...Huh?"
She turned to him, completely thrown off. "What did you just say?"
"I mean, unless you don't want to," Tony said with a casual smirk, eyes still on her.
"I—I do!" Clara replied quickly, a little too loudly.
Several students in the library glanced over. Upon recognizing them, most returned to their work, unfazed. Everyone knew Tony and Clara came here together almost daily—and since Tony's math paper had made the news, their routine had become something of a silent fixture among the regulars.
Clara's face turned pink. She lowered her voice and leaned closer. "I mean, yes. But...you caught me off guard. When you say graduate, do you mean next year, or after grad school?"
"After grad school, ideally," Tony replied, whispering near her ear. "But if you want to do it next summer, I'd be thrilled. Honeymoon over summer break. Some people get married in college, you know?"
Clara's face warmed again, but she smiled.
Tony continued, lowering his voice even further. "If my mom finds out I've got a girlfriend like you—smart, beautiful, patient—she's going to love you. Like, instantly. She'll probably show you off more than I show off my AI model."
"Your mom?" Clara asked, her voice suddenly hesitant.
"Yeah," Tony said as they stood up and left the library a few minutes early. "She's strong-willed. I grew up with my grandparents in a small town while she and my dad worked jobs in the city. So when I see her now, we don't always get along. She's used to giving orders. But weirdly, the more obedient someone is with her, the less she tries to control them. It's like she needs resistance to fight against."
Clara smiled softly. "I think I still need to ask my grandmother before we start wedding planning."
Tony paused. "Of course. I'd love to meet her."
That drew a surprised look from Clara.
"You want to go back to my village?" she asked.
"Yeah, this summer. We could visit together. And after we've got some money saved, we can bring your grandmother here to stay with us."
Clara hesitated. Her hometown was a remote village in the rural South—three hours by train, another two by bus, and then a final stretch by motorbike. It was isolated, underdeveloped, and worlds away from the biotech labs Tony was planning.
"You sure?" she asked cautiously.
Tony grinned. "I grew up in a farmhouse surrounded by cornfields and chickens. Believe me, I know the drill."
Clara laughed at that. "Alright... but don't say I didn't warn you."
They continued walking together, exchanging stories.
Clara told Tony about her family: her grandmother had raised her after her father died and her mother left. Her uncles helped occasionally, but her extended family wasn't well-off.
Her eldest uncle's family had three kids—two girls, and then finally a boy. Typical rural expectations. If the third had been another girl, they might've kept going.
Even though they meant well, they couldn't support eight people under one roof. So Clara and her grandparents mostly fended for themselves, with Clara working part-time jobs and sending scholarship money back home to help.
"If I hadn't done well in school," she said, "I probably would've married young and never left the village."
Tony nodded. "Well, you did do well. And now you're going to Northwood for grad school. That's no small deal."
"And you?" she asked.
"My mom doesn't bug me much anymore," Tony shrugged. "Ever since she found out I make $300 an hour for tutoring or consulting, she's basically given up trying to 'parent' me."
Clara laughed. "I guess success does solve a few problems."
"Exactly. And soon, we'll both be successful. Together."
They kept walking under the streetlamps, both thinking about the strange future ahead of them—equal parts unknown and exciting.
And though neither said it aloud, they both knew:
Whatever happened next... they'd face it side by side.