CH 174

“Who’s Director Li?” Zhang Xiaolong’s curious voice sounded.

“The wife of Vice Captain Jiang of Yongchuan Second Division. She’s a neurosurgeon.” And the woman who locked me up for two days…

Lin Chen glanced back at the police officer, put the letter on the table, copied down the order number of the courier envelope, and said, “Call a colleague from the forensic department and see if they can extract fingerprints.” After speaking, he handed the envelope to Zhang Xiaolong. “Check the recipient of the courier number and ask them to identify the sender. Also, look up to see who’s the owner of this number.”

Zhang Xiaolong was a little confused. “Is something wrong, Consultant Lin? What is this hostage-taking incident?”

Lin Chen couldn’t explain all the ins and outs of what went down given the time, so he could only answer, “I hope nothing will happen.”

The tasks he assigned were simple enough. Even without the help of others, Comrade Zhang Xiaolong completed most of them before getting off work.

“Consultant Lin, this person is really weird. You have to be careful.”

The police officer handed over the results. Lin Chen took the information in hand, read it carefully, and frowned involuntarily.

He nodded to the police officer and thanked her, then folded the paper and stuffed it in his pocket as he headed out.

Zhang Xiaolong called to him, “Consultant Lin, are you going out to work by yourself? Do you want someone to accompany you?”

Lin Chen looked around. Normally, Xing Conglian would probably have gone to the parking lot and driven the Jeep around, but now, there were only police officers packing up and getting ready to get off work. He said, “No, I’m relatively free, so I don’t mind going alone.”

Although he said this, without a full-time driver and the chatter of others, it was indeed a bit boring.

He was walking along the hot street to the overwhelming sounds of cicadas and the noise from the traffic. After walking for a while, he sat down on a bench and then called the number.

About half an hour later, a young man wearing a cap got off the bus stop across the road and hurriedly ran into a snack bar.

Lin Chen saw that the other party was looking for someone calmly at first and then became anxious. He stopped a clerk, as if asking some questions. After finding nothing, he rushed out of the store and started making a call.

Lin Chen felt his phone, which he had placed on the bench, start to vibrate. He looked at the young man across the road, picked up the phone, and pressed answer.

“Where are you?” A young man’s voice came from the other end.

Lin Chen didn’t speak and instead stood up.

The moment he stood up, the young man looked over. Seeing the sign of the other party rushing towards the side of the road, Lin Chen calmly said, “I’ll come over. Go into the store and find a seat by a window.”

After he finished speaking, he hung up. The young man was at a loss for a moment, but he obediently followed his instructions. He turned around and walked back into the shop.

The place he chose was close to Hongjing No. 3 High School. It was just after school, so there were many students in the shop coming to fill their stomachs after class. When he entered the store, the young man was wiping the table with some disinfectant wipes he had carried with him. The moment he saw him, the young man subconsciously wanted to stand up, but Lin Chen pressed on his shoulder and sat down opposite of him.

At the beginning, they didn’t speak. Lin Chen just carefully looked at the appearance of the person in front of him.

Although he had already seen the photo of the other party from the information Zhang Xiaolong handed over, the feeling of meeting each other in person was different after all. The young man’s cap was placed on the table. He had a crew cut and was wearing black-rimmed glasses. How could he describe the gaze under the glasses? It was completely different from every reporter he had seen. There was no shrewd look in his eyes trying to explore everything. On the contrary, he was more like a high school student who had just walked out of Hongjing No. 3 High School. He had clear eyes with a strange determination.

“Please introduce yourself,” Lin Chen said to the young man. He put his hand on the table and felt slightly wet from the back of his hands. When he looked down, he found that the young man had actually wiped down his side of the table as well.

“Hello, Consultant Lin. I’m a reporter from the Hongjing Evening News. I know that you handled that hostage-taking situation in Yongchuan Second People’s Hospital two days ago. I want to report a clue to you.”

The other party spoke proficiently, as if he had recited these lines many times.

“Please tell.”

“You’re in danger right now.” The young man leaned forward slightly and lowered his voice.

Lin Chen didn’t have much reaction to this. “I would like to hear the details.”

Just as the young man was about to speak, a waiter in the shop happened to come over.

“Two servings of clam soup.” He raised his head and asked the young man, “Is it okay if it’s slightly spicy?”

The young man was taken aback and nodded blankly. The waiter then turned and left. Probably because the young man felt that his attitude was too rude just now, it only made the young man more anxious. “Now Zhourui Pharmaceutical has joined forces with major media to hype you as a murderer of the mentally ill. Why don’t you know anything!”

Lin Chen sighed. He couldn’t explain to the other party how he had been living a life of imprisonment for the past two days, so much so that he really didn’t know anything about the progress of the hostage-taking case.

“It seems that you know a lot more about the case than me. Can you talk about it?”

The young man swallowed and plucked up his courage. “The name of the deceased who was killed by you is Li Ming. He’s a deputy director of Zhourui Pharmaceutical who’s in charge of submitting new drugs for review.”

“New drugs?”

“Yes. The reason why they wanted to kill Director Li is because Director Li is one of the medical experts in charge of drug marketing approval at the Drug Evaluation Center of the State Food and Drug Administration. All experts have passed the approval except for Director Li, who sent a rejection letter.”

It wasn’t until this moment that Lin Chen was startled. This case was simply unbelievable. “You mean, it’s because Director Li tied up the approval of this new drug that Zhourui Pharmaceutical is about to promote to the market, so they are trying to kill her?”

The young man nodded solemnly. “Correct.”

“Regardless of whether Zhourui Pharmaceutical’s motives for murder are established or not, there is an even bigger question: Why didn’t Zhourui Pharmaceutical choose a more secretive way of killing Director Li but instead chose a supervisor pretending to be mentally ill to kill her? Are they not afraid they will be listed as suspects?”

“Because no matter how Director Li dies, as long as the police investigate, Zhourui Pharmaceutical will be a prime suspect. Instead of being suspected secretly, it’s better to just jump out. Moreover, the deceased Li Ming did have a history of mental illness. If you hadn’t shot him dead, he’s very likely to be identified as having a sudden mental disorder… And the reason for his sudden mental disorder is, of course, because Director Li rejected the new drug approval that he was in charge of, thus putting him under immense pressure at work, which would lead him to kill Director Li because of this. Zhourui Pharmaceutical has arranged a series of evidence. After the death of Director Li, these things will gradually show up in front of the media and the police. Although it’s not foolproof, you should be very clear that sudden mental disorder is hard to explain. If there’s a psychiatrist that can be bought by them during the judicial appraisal process, the success rate of this matter would be greater than 95%. And…” The young man paused before continuing, “This would also be an example to all other parties who dare hinder the launch of this new drug, as they will think twice about their safety.”

The inside story described by the young man was too shocking. Lin Chen suddenly regretted choosing to talk to him about these bloody shady things inside a snack bar. He thought carefully about the possibility that the young man had told him. In fact, remembering the final, decisive gaze of the deceased, if he hadn’t shot first, Mrs. Jiang would’ve died. Even so, he still thought there was something wrong with this. “This is too bold, and the cost is not proportional to the benefit. I’m not convinced.”

“But it is! Consultant Lin, you have no idea how much money is invested in the research and development of new drugs. That is billions of dollars and tens of billions of profits. There is no successful pharmaceutical company that doesn’t step on human life. Do you know how many people have died due to adverse drug reactions? Do you think these pharmaceutical companies are socially responsible? They never are!”

The young man’s tone was heavy and impassioned. Lin Chen knew well that he was trying to persuade him, and he carried the passion that was unique to the young who hadn’t been smoothed by the world.

Lin Chen had tested this young man for a while. He was punctual, well-educated, and didn’t seem to be scheming. From the bottom of his heart, he was willing to believe the young man who had just appeared out of nowhere and given him a very strange clue. But the most critical question that needed to be asked was, “How do you know?”

“I found it,” the young man replied without hesitation.

Lin Chen was a little disappointed to hear the young man’s answer.

At this moment, the waiter came by to serve the clam soup. Lin Chen took out 50 yuan from his pocket and handed it to him, then stood up from the table and prepared to leave.

“Where are you going?!”

The young man raised his voice and grabbed him.

“You know, the premise of cooperation is trust. I’m sorry, but you don’t trust me, so I’m leaving.”

“Isn’t it enough trust that I came to see you?”

Lin Chen looked at the gradually empty school across the street and asked, “Was this store open when you went to school here?”

The young man’s pupils suddenly shrank. “You investigated me?”

“Because I live quite cautiously, Mr. Duan Yang.”

Lin Chen didn’t know what the young man in front of him was thinking. He came to him pretending to be a reporter from the Hongjing Evening News. Wouldn’t this identity be revealed by the police once they checked? Although he wanted to leave, the shame and pain in the young man’s eyes at this moment forced him to sit down in front of him again.

“You’re not a reporter for the Hongjing Evening News, so don’t say that there aren’t any lies in this matter. To be honest, how did you even know about this matter?”

The young man pursed his lips and finally made up his mind. “The reason why Director Li sent the rejection letter is precisely because I sent her an anonymous letter. In fact, I sent an anonymous letter to all the experts in charge of the approval process. Only Director Li believed me, so I can’t bear to see what might happen to her.”

“I don’t believe you.” Lin Chen had reviewed this young man’s file. He resolutely said, “You’re just a veterinarian in a pet shop. Why do you know such inside information?”

“Because that kind of drug wasn’t developed by Zhourui. The real discoverer was my teacher. They just stole my teacher’s unfinished research result. My teacher is Duan Wanshan, and he has been engaged in the medical treatment of the Dana Region. You can search any official website of any major foreign media and find reports on him. I’m not lying!”