CH 176

In front of the student’s computer desk, there was an intimate photo of Duan Yang and his teacher. While Lin Chen still had some puzzlement, most likely this “teacher” Duan Yang mentioned was probably Mr. Duan Wanshan*, who supported the medical construction facilities in Africa. With reverence, Lin Chen carefully observed the older man in the photo.

*Note: Duan Wanshan (段万山) and Duan Yang (端阳) are not related. They are different Chinese characters.

Mr. Duan Wanshan looked like a typical scholar. In the photo, he was wearing a beret and a checkered scarf. Perhaps because he was holding an umbrella in his hand, it gave Lin Chen the impression that he once studied in England, revealing an elegant academic aura and making him even more admirable.

Thinking of this, Lin Chen turned his attention to Teacher Duan’s student.

The young man’s face looked a little red under the desk lamp. He had already retreated to the chair and sat down.

Lin Chen thought for a bit, then asked, “Do you or do you not want me to ask about your relationship with your teacher?”

The kitten in Duan Yang’s hand gave a gentle meow; its eyes were as blue as the sky, as if it were answering his question.

“Alright, I won’t ask,” Lin Chen replied seriously.

“No… It’s not what you think.”

“What do you think I think?”

Duan Yang was so tongue-tied at the moment that he couldn’t speak. Lin Chen smiled. Unexpectedly, he was in a good mood. He sat on the beanbag casually.

Duan Yang looked even more depressed than before. “Teacher Duan was my undergraduate tutor. Originally, he only supervised graduate students, but he made an exception and brought me in. During summer vacation of my junior year, he suddenly resigned and joined Doctors Without Borders in Africa. When he left, he didn’t even send me a text message.”

“How weird.” Lin Chen’s hand hung to the ground as he sat on the beanbag. He knocked on the floor and looked at Duan Yang.

“What’s weird?”

“Since your teacher didn’t say goodbye and didn’t send a text message, why did he suddenly contact you about adverse drug reactions many years later. Does your teacher have no former colleagues or friends? How can he leave such an important matter to a student?” Lin Chen asked.

“I!” Duan Yang’s face turned red again, looking extremely cute under the light.

“Hm?”

“I secretly inquired about it. How could teacher leave this kind of thing to me? He wouldn’t say a word to me.”

Seeing that Duan Yang’s gloomy expression wasn’t fake, Lin Chen started to get confused over this twisted relationship. “Inquired?”

“My former shijie went to work as a teacher in the Dana Region. I asked her to tell me some news about my teacher from time to time. She secretly told me stuff on and off. It was probably at the end of last year or the beginning of this year that my shijie and the others accidentally found that a paper by Professor Tan Kang was very close to a drug that my teacher had studied. At that time, Professor Tan Kang had already published his paper, so it’s difficult to prove that he may have plagiarized my teacher. They thought it was just a coincidence, but later, they realized that it might really be teacher’s research results that were leaked. Because the experimental conditions of the Dana Region were too poor, they would regularly send things to laboratories in big cities for analysis…”

“And some of those labs belong to Zhourui Pharmaceutical?”

“I don’t know the details. It could just be a laboratory that Zhourui invested in, but there’s no way to prove that my teacher’s research findings were actually stolen from a lab.”

“Unless you find a key person and admit that he leaked something, but even then, the other party has already obtained the drug’s patent rights, and patent ownership is difficult to verify.”

“Indeed, it’s very hard.”

“What happened after?” Lin Chen asked.

Hearing this, Duan Yang suddenly laid down on the bed and let out a long sigh.

“What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know what happened afterwards. My shijie didn’t stay in the Dana Region for long.”

“Why didn’t she stay there for long?”

“Because… Because my shijie kept sending me secret messages about teacher and when he found out, he drove her out and back to the country.”

Hearing this, Lin Chen suddenly dragged out his tone. “Student Duan Yang…”

“What?”

“There’s a word called idiot. Do you think this suits you?”

“Consultant Lin.” Duan Yang smiled bitterly. “Don’t make fun of me, okay? Don’t you have anyone you care about? You miss them all the time, but you never hear from them, so you have to beat around the bush to get news about them.”

Lin Chen thought, ‘I can’t even beat around the bush to get news now.’ He suddenly didn’t want to talk to Duan Yang about caring or worrying any longer. He continued with his unfinished question from earlier. “I still think there’s a problem here. According to what you said, you’re actually a nosy person. Since your teacher is aware that this new drug with serious side effects is about to enter the market, why didn’t he personally step forward? Even if communication problems exist in the Dana Region, he should have entrusted this to a third party.”

“This is also where I’m worried.” Duan Yang looked solemn. “I really don’t know what happened later, but I have been paying attention to academic journals at home and abroad. No one has published papers of an opposing nature. In academia, we still have to rely on experiments and data. I always feel that teacher’s experiment hasn’t been completed, so he hasn’t published his paper. I can only guess he didn’t expect Zhourui Pharmaceutical to complete Phase 4 of clinical trials so quickly, but I really don’t know what’s going on.”

Lin Chen nodded.

The problem now was that Zhourui Pharmaceutical intended to launch a new drug that may cause adverse reactions. The person involved was in the Dana Region making him difficult to reach. All that was left was a current veterinarian who was fired from a hospital trying to prevent this from happening, but that was like a mantis trying to stop a car.

“So why exactly did you invite me to your residence?” Lin Chen suddenly asked.

“I have something I want to give you. Can you get up for a bit?” Duan Yang said softly.

Lin Chen was taken aback for a moment before realizing that the young man had hidden something inside the beanbag he was sitting on.

“Why are you so careful?”

Lin Chen felt his legs were a little numb, so he didn’t immediately stand up.

“Just last month, I found that my computer seemed to have been moved. In the evening, there was a collective barking from the pets in the pet store. I went downstairs and found that the door was open, as if someone had snuck in. Since then, I have used a desktop computer to connect to the internet and kept all the data on a laptop that’s not connected to the internet.”

“So, what I’m sitting on…”

“Is my laptop,” Duan Yang replied.

Lin Chen hurriedly got up, but the moment he stood up, he suddenly felt dizzy. He held onto the wardrobe, but his knees softened, and he fell to the ground, unconscious.

Later, he was awakened by something licking him. The back of his hand was tingling, and when he opened his eyes, he found himself lying on Duan Yang’s bed. He looked down and realized that it was the kitten that Duan Yang was holding that was licking his hand.

Lin Chen tried to sit up, and found it wasn’t difficult. When he sat up, he saw a needle in his arm, and Duan Yang was hanging up an IV bag.

Seeing him wake up, the young man hurriedly said, “Why are you in such poor health?!”

“I was in a hospital when you called me out.”

Hearing what he said, the young man said embarrassingly, “Sorry, I didn’t know.” He paused, and his expression changed, like a doctor looking at an indefatigable patient. “Your neutrophils are seriously decreasing. Did the hospital check on this? Can you show me your medical records?”

“Did you give me a blood test?” Lin Chen was speechless.

“We’re in a pet hospital. It’s not like we can’t do simple tests.”

Lin Chen looked at the liquid that Duan Yang gave him. “Then this is?”

“Glucose. The ratio is fine. It can be used on humans.”

Lin Chen resisted the urge to pull out the needle. He was afraid that if he did this, the young man in front of him would beat him.

In awe of the doctor, Lin Chen replied obediently, “I had my whole body checked. There’s nothing serious and the primary illness is slowly decreasing.”

“Then you must pay attention. The decrease in neutrophils can easily lead to repeated infections. It’s been hot recently, so make sure you don’t catch a cold or something. Also, what’s with that injury on your hand?”

Lin Chen looked down at the gauze around his palm. “Let’s talk about what you want to give me first.”

Duan Yang was someone who was easily distracted.

Hearing what he said, the young man let out an “oh” and took out a small SD card from the bedside table. “This is all the relevant data about the new drug. Some are the contents that my shijie passed on to me, and some are the results of my own animal experiments. There is also some scattered data from Zhourui Pharmaceutical that a friend obtained.”

Lin Chen frowned. “Friend?”

“Yes, he’s in management at Zhourui. He revealed a lot of inside information to me, but I can’t tell you who he is. Otherwise, his life may be in danger.”

Lin Chen looked at the small SD card in Duan Yang’s palm and said solemnly, “But I can’t take this.”

“Why?”

“There may be evidence obtained through illegal means. If I read it, then the relevant chain of evidence may not be admissible to the court.”

“But!”

“No buts.” Lin Chen put his feet down from the bed, lifted the adhesive tape that was fixed to the back of his hand, pulled out the needle, and then pressed the bleeding point with his other hand. “Have you given this thing to anyone else?”

“My friend also has one.”

“Don’t let others know that you have this material. Also, I suggest you make fake data and put them on your computer, then hide this SD card.”

“Because other people already know that I have this material, so the previous infiltrator was looking for this?”

Lin Chen asked, “Do you have anything else of value?”

Duan Yang shook his head. “Not that I’m aware of.”

While speaking, Lin Chen had already put on his shoes and began to walk to the door.

Suddenly, the young man realized something and tried to stop him. “Consultant Lin, if you don’t want to look at it, fine, but that doesn’t mean you can go home now. You must show me your medical records tomorrow.”

“There are no records.” Lin Chen started walking downstairs.

“How can that be if you’ve just been hospitalized?”

“Obviously, because I escaped.”

Unexpectedly, Lin Chen was stopped by a huge tabby cat, allowing Duan Yang to grab his arm. “I’ll take you to the doctor tomorrow.”

“Aren’t you a doctor?” He turned around and asked the young man incredulously.

“Ah?”

“I’ll come see you tomorrow. I’m really tired now and want to go home and rest.”

“Then I’ll take you back. I’m worried about you when you’re like this.” While Duan Yang was talking, he started to look for his keys.

“No need,” Lin Chen said to Duan Yang. “We don’t know each other well. If you’re a bad person, wouldn’t I have revealed my address to you?”

Duan Yang’s mouth dropped open, unsure how to respond.

“Look, I just don’t like people coming into my residence. I live close by.” Lin Chen shook his phone and walked towards Yanjia Lane. “I’ll call you when I get home. Don’t worry…”

After he finished speaking, Lin Chen walked into the expansive night.

In fact, he didn’t lie to Duan Yang. When he left Duan Yang’s pet shop and turned left, he could hear the sound of water. After walking along the river for about eight minutes, he had reached home.

It was very late, so there was almost no one in the alley.

Perhaps it was because he just had an IV infusion or had lain down for a while, but he no longer felt dizzy. Rather, he was completely sober, so he could think seriously about the time he left home and whether he needed to change the sheets. At least before he saw the person waiting for him under the eaves, he felt he was still clear-headed.

In the night, the man standing under the eaves was neatly dressed. It was obvious he had been waiting for a long time.

Lin Chen suddenly regretted that he didn’t let Duan Yang take him home, because the person who was waiting for him on Yanjia Lane and was standing in front of Xing Conglian’s house was quite a troublesome man.

And this troublesome man happened to be named, Huang Ze.