We Don’t Do Faux
“你好, Fu 先生. Welcome back,” Libby said, firmly shaking her customer’s hand.
“Libby 小姐,” Mr. Fu replied crisply, taking a seat in Libby’s brightly lit, pastel-colored office. Two bald, grim-faced men wearing mirrored sunglasses tookup positions by the doorway on either side, hands clasped behind their backs.
With his full head of jet-black hair and tan, elastic skin, the octogenarian Mr. Fu looked half his stated age, the culmination of a decades-long regimen of nanotech, genetic editing, and other routine medical maintenance made affordable by his enormous bank account. Coupled with an excellent diet and a vigorous, healthy lifestyle, the tuxedoed entrepreneur was the poster child for Phoenix Rejuvenative Sciences Center, Libby’s employer.
“Mr. Fu, please confirm that you’re here for cerebral regenerative nanotherapy,” Libby said.
“是.” Mr. Fu smiled. “It’stime.”
“Confirmed.” Libby examined her monitors. “Four months, on the dot.”
“Yes. Pre-paid in cash.”
“Of course.” Libby folded her hands on the desk, giving her most charming smile. “Now, you are aware that given your biological age, we recommend that the frequency of administration be increased to every three months once you enter your ninth decade. The dose will also need to be increased. Cellular damage accumulates faster as you age, Fenixir or no. Our nanobots are working against time to repair everything so you stay healthy and functional. They’re miraculous, no doubt, but they don’t confer immortality. Frailty becomes an issue—”
“Don’t need to hear all the specs, Libby.” The businessman nodded. “Just put it onthe autopay.”
“Certainly.” Libby clicked a few buttons, and the PRSC had doubled their income stream from Mr. Fu. Just like that, she thought to herself. “It looks like the regimen’s really working for you, Fu 先生,” she continued, chuckling.
“It is, thanks to you and your team.”
“Don’t thank me. I’m neither the roboticists who developed the nanotech nor the engineers who refined it forhuman consumption.”
“哎呀, take the credit. You don’t know how much this means to me. Fenixir is well worth the cost.”
“Do tell.”
“Thanks to Fenixir, I literally doubled the length of my career, without thephysical and cognitive declines that come with age and that in other times might have gottena relic like me kicked to the curb twenty or twenty-five years ago. It gives the benefit of being able to think long term, very long term, beyond the day-to-dayfluctuations of the markets. Returns multiplied. Fortunes weremade, far, far bigger than what I’ve spent here.”
Libby kept her smile on. “Good for you.”
“Also, looking youthful and vigorous is an asset in today’s world, no matter where you work.” Mr. Fu laughed. “Libby 小姐, you are too young and pretty to understand.
