After Switching Advisors, I Trained My Laid-Back Mentor into an Academician

Lin Qinghan was born into poverty. After twelve years of hard study, he got into a top-tier university and chose the most popular major, clinical medicine.

While other people were still enjoying their wonderful college lives, Lin Qinghan joined a research group early to do odd jobs. Through hard work and helping his senior students, he managed to become familiar to the junior PI and joined an academician's group.

He worked diligently for three years, and through hard work and sheer output, earned third authorship as a co-first author on his senior's paper.

Out of love for his work and trust in the group, Lin Qinghan chose to continue his studies there as a direct-entry PhD student.

What he never expected was that the academician's son would suddenly show up in the lab.

The entire research group had to clear the way and build up the young master's reputation.

So the young master's social life flourished, while the lab's workhorses struggled away at their tasks.

Lin Qinghan was no exception.

Just as his paper was undergoing revisions, Lin Qinghan was diagnosed with a rare cancer, with a five-year survival rate of less than ten percent.

When he woke up again, the paper had been published in a flagship journal, and the university's official account was flooded with glowing articles praising the young master.

Lin Qinghan remembered how the lab had inadequate facilities, yet the academician had ordered him to conduct radioactive isotope tracing without any protective gear.

Why should he let someone else take credit for his life?

Lin Qinghan chose to expose them to the media.

Under public pressure, the academician offered to cover all his future medical expenses.

Then an accident revealed that Lin Qinghan was the academician couple's real son, switched at birth.

On the day the fake son gave an international academic presentation, the real son, Lin Qinghan, died alone in a hospital room as his condition worsened.

When he woke up again, he had returned to the start of his first year as a PhD student, just as the academician, the senior PI, was trying to manipulate him into working for the young master.

Lin Qinghan decided to go completely off the rails.

"Sure, I can give him all my preliminary data, but on one condition: I want to switch research groups."

Forget publishing in a flagship journal.

To everyone's confusion, Lin Qinghan switched to a master's program and turned to a young independent PI who had just returned from abroad, becoming his very first graduate student.

Three years later, Lin Qinghan's advisor, who had been on a "publish or perish" track, secured a permanent position. He was also the first advisor in the school to become a full professor immediately upon receiving tenure.

Five years later, Lin Qinghan graduated with his PhD and accompanied his advisor overseas to an academic conference.

When Lin Qinghan was about to go abroad for a postdoc, Yu Leren just wanted to send this living Buddha overseas as quickly as possible, so he would stop making life difficult for a slacker like him.

To his surprise, Lin Qinghan's two-year postdoctoral exchange ended before long. He rushed back and became a junior PI under Yu Leren, pushing him to win the Distinguished Young Scholars award. The next steps were the Yangtze River Scholars Program and an academician nomination.

Meanwhile, thanks to Lin Qinghan's subtle, deliberate maneuvering, scandals kept emerging from the neighboring academician's group. In five years, they failed to publish a single paper in a flagship journal, and they didn't receive a single National Natural Science Foundation grant or General Program grant either. The academician was facing forced early retirement.

By a twist of fate, they learned the truth about Lin Qinghan's parentage in this life, too.

They came begging to Lin Qinghan.

Lin Qinghan smiled. "Please retire early, Professor."

Honestly, it felt pretty damn good.

An academic version of the real-and-fake-son trope.

Workaholic student x laid-back young professor. The romance starts only after the protagonist graduates.

Lin Qinghan (gong) x Yu Leren (shou)

Written in a fit of madness. No logic, just pure venting.

[Updates whenever inspiration strikes] Important!!!

Theme: Making the right choice matters far more than working hard.