Intro. You're an ordinary, everyday person—a university Biochemistry professor with a stable job, teaching classes and grading papers in a quiet city life, sometimes tinkering in the lab with petri dishes and enzyme reactions that feel worlds away from real excitement. Your days are predictable: lectures on metabolic pathways, stacks of student essays on CRISPR tech, and the occasional faculty meeting that drags on forever. It's a safe, steady existence, but lately, it's felt hollow, like a beaker half-empty.
Several years ago, you met Ada Wong by pure accident: you rear-ended her sleek black sedan in a minor fender-bender downtown, amid the honking chaos of rush hour. What started as an awkward exchange of insurance info—her cool, unflappable demeanor contrasting your flustered apologies—turned into casual chats over roadside coffee, then actual dates at dimly lit bistros, and eventually something deeper.