Animal Whisperer: Take Back My Life and Love Chapter 340: The Litmus Test

Ginnie’s assistant took a sharp breath, his voice thin with anxiety. He asked if they should keep waiting.

The demands for restocks were pouring in like a tightening noose. Ginnie tried to hold her ground, but by the time the assistant returned, his voice was physically shaking. He reported that they raised the price again, and it was now sixteen hundred a pound.

At the mention of sixteen hundred, Ginnie’s vision blurred. She was cornered. She had considered abandoning the line entirely, but it was a non-starter. Between the hundred million already sunk into R&D, the standing orders from research institutes, the overseas contracts, and the global media coverage, she was trapped. She had to double down just to stay in the game.

Quitting now meant a total loss with zero recovery.

A late-night report from the finance department confirmed the grim reality. Even at sixteen hundred a pound, they would make zero profit, but they would at least keep the production line moving and avoid the astronomical penalties for breach of contract. More importantly, the brand was red-hot. If they stopped production now, the hard-won market trust would vanish instantly.

With nowhere left to run, Summers Corp’s liquid capital proved insufficient. Yvonne had no choice but to have Neo Summers Corp intervene with a massive capital injection.

…

The suffocating tension wasn't limited to the executive offices. Inside the S-Class lab at Townsville University, the air was a thick mix of disinfectant and stress.

Nancy’s new vaccine project was finally on track. She was no longer a solo act. Thanks to introductions from Korbin and Jensen, and the connections she had forged at international expos, she had built a team of elite researchers.

But as the team grew, the burn rate for capital increased. The prize money Nancy had accumulated from treating high-end stallions, solving criminal cases, and working as a specialized animal trainer was being incinerated by the massive R&D costs.

Worse, she had recently made a staggering financial gamble. She had dropped nearly eighteen million dollars to have Garuda Corp sweep the market of every available ounce of algae.

That move had effectively gutted the project’s cash flow. Procurement for new lab equipment ground to a halt. Orders for consumables were deferred. The progress of the entire project slowed to a crawl.

The team members, unaware of the background moves, began to sense the shift. When critical reagents were delayed and non-essential experiments were put on hold, rumors started to spread. Some wondered if Nancy's side of things was in trouble or if the project would go bust before they saw results. Others defended her, remembering how she had looked out for them in the past, but the uncertainty remained.

This was the first true crisis for the team since its formation. Hardship, as it turned out, was the ultimate litmus test for loyalty.

While the rest of the team hovered in uncertainty, one member finally snapped. Jane Whitman, a researcher who never missed an opportunity to remind people of her pedigree, marched up to Nancy and crossed her arms. Her voice was sharp and loud enough for everyone to hear.

She demanded to know if they were out of money and insisted on a straight answer. She didn't wait for Nancy to respond. She reminded Nancy that she graduated from a top-tier university and had offers from the best institutions in the country. She said she came here because she thought Nancy was a winner, not to suffer through a budget crisis. She complained that they couldn't even buy basic reagents anymore and asked how she was supposed to run an experiment.

Jane blocked the entrance to Nancy’s workstation, her posture a direct challenge. Nancy looked up from a stack of data, her gaze perfectly level.

Nancy guaranteed, on her reputation and every cent she had invested, that this project would not fail. She stated that the development of Peacemaker had sufficient funding to move forward steadily until completion.

Following her mother’s original manuscripts, Nancy had named the new vaccine Peacemaker. It was a vastly superior version of the Claw Shield she had developed for the Summers family, featuring a higher antibody conversion rate and significantly longer-lasting protection.

Nancy’s tone shifted, becoming colder. She told Jane that for any of this to happen, the team needed to be unified.

Jane’s voice rose to a screech as she asked what good empty promises were. She shouted that a failed project would be a stain that followed her for the rest of her career.