The Chairman was slightly overweight, wearing a dark golden tie and meticulously styled hair. His speech was full of reason and emotion, which made him appear persuasive.
Every word he spoke seemed reasonable and heartfelt, but Huang Ze felt nauseated.
However, after that, Xing Conglian uttered only one word, with a very short tone.
He said, “Oh.”
Huang Ze was stunned, as were the Chairman, and all the employees present.
Xing Conglian remained calm and confident, overlooking the struggling ants at his feet without needing to make any unnecessary reactions.
The Chairman stood awkwardly in place. After a brief moment of silence, the Chairman extended his hand, revealing his wristwatch, and said with righteousness, “Captain Xing, please handcuff me.”
The entire room fell silent. Zhourui’s employees sat down, each harboring their own intentions, all looking at Xing Conglian, waiting for his response.
The current situation seemed to have turned into a competition of who could say the right words and gain the trust of the employees, as whoever succeeded would emerge victorious.
However, Xing Conglian had no intention of winning. He adjusted his posture, leaned forward, and looked at the police officers present. “Didn’t you hear what I said earlier?”
The police officers responsible for the arrest swiftly escorted the members of the Nao Kangning team away from their seats.
At that moment, a deep male voice cut through the chaotic atmosphere.
“Stop!”
In the corner of the room, a middle-aged man stood up. He was wearing a white lab coat with a pen tucked into his front chest pocket, displaying the demeanor of a traditional scholar. Moreover, his hair was mostly gray, which didn’t match his age.
A smile appeared on Chairman Zhou’s face as he also looked towards the source of the voice.
“Who are you?” Xing Conglian calmly asked, seemingly unsurprised that someone like Li Zheng would stand up.
“I’m Li Zheng. I led the development of Nao Kangning,” the man said seriously. “I am the head and chief engineer of the Coreda Laboratory under Zhourui.”
“Mr. Li.” Xing Conglian paused, giving him the opportunity to continue.
“If there are indeed any problems with Nao Kangning, the main culprit should be me,” Li Zheng said. “I led the development of this drug that you refer to as a psychotropic substance. It turns people into uncontrollable demons, and yet I failed to discover its strong side effects. I cannot shirk my responsibility…”
As Li Zheng spoke, he walked towards the center of the conference room and stood in the vacant seat, facing Xing Conglian. Huang Ze furrowed his brow tighter and tighter. They needed to investigate the case thoroughly, not find a scapegoat. If a second company executive voluntarily confessed, it could inadvertently turn into the police pressuring Zhourui’s employees to admit guilt, which would be very unsightly.
Xing Conglian leaned against the back of his chair, raised an eyebrow, and asked, “So what?”
“I have a question.” Li Zheng pushed his glasses up, hands in his pockets, and stared at the rotating compound on the projection screen, as if organizing his thoughts.
“I didn’t fully understand earlier. Are you saying that the substance that drives people crazy is TERN? It’s identical to it? Are you sure?”
Xing Conglian glanced at Xiao Zhan, signaling him to answer the question.
Mr. Xiao Zhan’s response was unexpected. He pointed to the 20 vacant seats, mustering his courage, and said, “I won’t speak to you while you’re standing here.”
Li Zheng didn’t expect this move. He followed Xiao Zhan’s pointing finger and looked over.
In the next moment, Li Zheng took a step forward and walked towards the 20 vacant seats, as if it was a very easy decision.
Watching Li Zheng’s figure, cracks finally appeared on Chairman Zhou’s meticulously maintained face.
The morning sun outside had fully risen, casting a brilliant path. The scientist with graying hair didn’t look back.
Sitting in the sunlight, Li Zheng first spoke to Xing Conglian. “Honestly, I don’t have any inside information to share. If it is indeed my responsibility, you don’t need to reduce my sentence. I’m sitting here because I want to figure out what’s going on.”
Xing Conglian looked at him and nodded in agreement.
The slightly overweight Chairman clenched his teeth and restrained himself as best he could.
“Chairman Zhou, I’ll just sit for a while. Once I understand the issue, I’ll come back. You can take a seat for now.” Li Zheng realized this and politely addressed his boss before finally turning to Xiao Zhan. “Can you answer my earlier question now?”
“I’m certain. The two compounds do indeed have exactly the same structural formula,” Mr. Xiao Zhan said.
A faint worry finally appeared on Li Zheng’s previously calm face. He pondered for a moment and said, “But I am equally certain that in numerous clinical trials, TERN itself didn’t have such powerful toxic side effects. How is this possible?”
“I… I don’t know… but that’s what the analysis results showed.” Xiao Zhan became hesitant again, as it was part of his nature.
“Speaking of which, there are so many types of problematic drugs, involving hundreds and thousands of compounds. Why did you specifically compare it to TERN?”
“Well, it’s the result of deduction,” Xiao Zhan felt somewhat embarrassed, as if he had copied the answer in advance. “From comparing the old and new components of Nordren and Nao Kangning, I found that you had exclusively modified TERN, so I thought the problem lay here.”
Xiao Zhan’s voice was soft and timid, but the accusation in that statement was clear and severe, sending shivers down people’s spines.
Li Zheng remained silent for a long time. Fear and anxiety filled his expression as he looked at the many people in front of him—his colleagues, superiors, and, of course, his boss. The scientist’s hand, resting on the table, tightly clenched into a fist, as if considering countless possibilities to absolve his company, but ultimately defeated by this simple and straightforward statement.
He finally turned to his own boss and asked, “Didn’t you say that the so-called drug problem in the news was Shen Lian poisoning our company’s medication during the production process?”
“The internal investigation results of the company do confirm that,” Chairman Zhou replied.
“But how did you find out about Shen Lian’s involvement in the poisoning so quickly?” Li Zheng persisted in a posture as if he were the true presiding judge.
Xing Conglian had been listening with his arms crossed the whole time, remaining quiet.
“We have already submitted the relevant information to the police. Whether we can disclose it publicly in such a setting still requires the approval of the police,” the chairman humbly responded.
“That’s fine,” Xing Conglian said.
Chairman Zhou took a deep breath and spoke slowly. “Dr. Tan Kang has a smart pen that automatically records writing data and converts it into electronic documents. After his death, his notebook was stolen, but we found that pen. It recorded his suspicions of Shen Lian’s poisoning. Afterward, our company conducted an internal investigation. The surveillance records from the day before Dr. Tan Kang’s death were erased, but we managed to restore all the entry and exit surveillance records, which revealed Shen Lian’s presence. Finally, we submitted this as evidence to the police and issued a public warning.”
Chairman Zhou deliberately emphasized that the final document was a converted electronic document, not handwritten. In other words, the content of the document was actually very easy to forge. This line of reasoning had likely been nested repeatedly within the upper levels of Zhourui, even among the staff, and had been confirmed before being presented.
Wang Chao kept his head lowered, apparently not finding any issues in the statement.
Li Zheng took a pen out of his pocket and casually grabbed a shopping receipt, writing and doodling on the back. Finally, he tapped the table, saying, “Since TERN has a problem, let’s reverse engineer it in three stages. The first stage is the safety period when Nao Kangning was approved for clinical trials and market release; the second stage is a blank period, which involves tracking the repeated clinical data; the third stage is the Nordren modification phase. Chairman, please tell me. Why did you change the structural formula of TERN in the new drug Nordren?”
“That was Dr. Tan Kang’s suggestion.” Chairman Zhou paused, then said, “You are the pharmaceutical experts I rely on, while I am merely a manager. You can find out the purpose behind changing the structural formula of TERN by looking through the reports. I am only responsible for signing off.”
Chairman Zhou’s attitude was sincere and quite convincing, shifting the blame to the late Dr. Tan Kang. Although it seemed suspicious, no one could point out any problems with this.
“Does anyone on the Tan Kang team know about it?” Li Zheng tapped the table and looked at the crowded seats across from him. “Xiao Chen, you were part of my team and later went to Tan Kang’s team. Speak up.”
Li Zheng now completely resembled a meeting in the laboratory or a mentor guiding students, casually singling out people.
The researcher who was called upon stood up, looking very awkward. “Professor Li, what do you want me to say?”
“Just speak freely. Tan Kang discovered that there was a problem with the medication I supervised the development of, and they adjusted the TERN structural formula. Although the internal research and development progress of the team was kept confidential, there should have been discussions internally. There must be meeting records of when and why the change was made, right?”
“Dr. Tan Kang did independently propose changing the structural formula of TERN, but I don’t remember the specific reasons. However, all the meeting records and project progress copies were taken by the police yesterday,” Xiao Chen answered.
Li Zheng looked at Mr. Xiao Zhan and asked, “So all the information is with you. Have you sorted through it?”
“The reason was improvement,” Mr. Xiao Zhan replied.
“It’s too abrupt.” Li Zheng frowned and contemplated. “Is there a specific time frame?”
Mr. Xiao Zhan said, “I had the same thought and summarized it yesterday.”
Wang Chao opened a new document, and a clear timeline appeared on the screen.
2011.1 Nao Kangning improvement project initiated
2011.6 New ingredient introduced
2012.2 TERN structural formula modified
2012.3 Entered animal experimentation phase
2013.2 Entered clinical trials
2016.2 Completion of three-year monitoring period for the improved drug, entered approval process
2016.10 Obtained approval and market authorization
“After the modification of the TERN structural formula, animal experiments were immediately conducted?” Li Zheng pressed his lips together. “That’s too fast. Was Tan Kang so confident?”
Everyone present was an industry professional, and this timeline, clearly summarized by Mr. Xiao Zhan, finally sparked low murmurs and discussions throughout the room.
“The purpose is too specific,” someone said.
“The approval process followed the procedure for modified drugs, so no wonder it was so fast…” someone else commented.
But finally, someone asked the most crucial question, “Why was this project suddenly initiated?”
As soon as this question was raised, the noisy conference room fell silent once again, and everyone looked at Chairman Zhou, who had a firm grasp of the situation.
Chairman Zhou had endured until now and had to continue to endure. He tapped his head and suddenly realized. “If that’s the case, could Tan Kang be an accomplice of Shen Lian? They conspired together, and Shen Lian killing Tan Kang was an internal conflict?”
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