Science was the discipline of discovery, and this characteristic was particularly obvious in biology.
Knowing that the answer wasn’t far away, but no matter how hard you tried, the thin veil was like a boulder that couldn’t be broken.
“No, no, it’s all wrong.” Li Zheng slumped in his chair, his eyes a little blo-odshot from a long time without rest.
The first batch of Yuzhishan had already been produced by Mercer, and because of its high toxicity, it could hardly pass international drug standards and was therefore listed as a special trauma drug, which could only be purchased by patients whose viruses had entered the outbreak stage.
The next day, after the first outbreak of the virus, a peace agreement was signed between the government and the opposition, promising that neither side would initiate a war for ten years.
Everything was going well.
But the research on the Doc virus vaccine didn’t go so smoothly. Li Zheng’s lab successfully screened out substances that could be antibodies in Serval’s body, but these were injected into other experimental subjects but didn’t work as they should, and the experimental process came to a standstill.
“Li Zheng, call from Cape Town.” Liu Sichao’s expression was a bit grim.
Li Zheng rubbed his temples and picked up the phone.
“Hello.”
“Hello, honored Mr. Li, this is Professor Laing from Cape Town, we have encountered a huge problem with our experiment, so we had to disturb you.”
“You’re welcome, we’re partners, we should share information.” Li Zheng said with a smile.
The person on the other end of the phone was silent for a moment, seemingly thinking of how to word it.
“Mr. Li Zheng, it’s like this. The Cape Town Biological Laboratory has also recently used Serval as an experimental subject to do a biological test of the Doc virus. But the results were very surprising. All six servals died from the virus outbreak, without exception.”
“So the preliminary conclusion we came to is that there are no antibodies to the Doc virus in the Serval.” Laing said.
Boom!
Li Zheng’s brain seemed to be exploded all at once.
“That’s not possible.” He subconsciously retorted, how was this possible! If there were no antibodies in the serval’s body, then how could the ten servals in his lab have survived until now!
Professor Leining on the other end of the phone pondered for a moment and continued, “Mr. Li Zheng, I don’t know which of our two parties’ experiments went wrong. I also hope very much that it was our mistake, but we have done three repetitions of the experiment. Our experimental data can be sent to you by fax.”
“Okay, my fax number is XXX-XXXX.”
In a short time, Li Zheng received a fax from the University of Cape Town, the experimental data from the University of Cape Town was so much that the fax machine worked for two whole hours before all the information was transmitted.
Li Zheng carefully flipped through the information, and his expression on his face became increasingly grim.
“How is it possible, how is it possible ……” he muttered, comparing Cape Town’s experimental data with his own, the exact same experiment, the exact same experimental subject, but they got completely different experimental results.
Li Zheng felt as if a pot of cold water had been poured on his head, his body was cold.
“What’s wrong with it!? What the hell is wrong?!” He tried hard to calm himself down.
Taking two deep breaths, Li Zheng took out an ice cube from the freezer and placed it on his forehead. The cold made his mind slightly clearer.
Nowadays, the news of the upcoming release of the Doc virus vaccine has been widely circulated, and Dormans were looking forward to the birth of the vaccine with full expectation. Even the whole world was watching the progress of this experiment, if Li Zheng couldn’t get the result for a long time, not to mention the people of Dorman would be disappointed, it would be a huge blow to his reputation.
He closed his eyes, trying to smooth out his thoughts, his experimental steps weren’t wrong, the Cape Town Biological Laboratory’s experimental steps weren’t wrong, there must be something in between that he didn’t pay attention to, there must be!
“Let’s start over again!” Li Zheng said calmly.
This time, it started over several times.
Liang Zhe covered Li Zheng’s eyes from behind, “Today is the New Year.”
It was now 8:42 pm on December 31, 1984, and in 3 hours and 18 minutes, it would be 1985.
Liang Zhe could feel Li Zheng’s eyelids moving under his palm.
Li Zheng sighed softly, his right hand over Liang Zhe’s palm, “I know.”
These days, he had been repeating the Doc virus biological experiments, his experimental results didn’t have the slightest difference from the previous ones, the ten Serval cats, indeed, had antibodies against Doc virus. Was the Cape Town lab wrong?
No, there was no way a globally renowned laboratory would make such a low-level mistake. There must be something that they overlooked, but what was that something?
“I’ll change my clothes and we’ll go celebrate the New Year together.” Li Zheng said softly. Perhaps, going out for a walk would give new inspiration.
Hong Kong University was very close to Li Zheng’s lab, and it was only a twenty-minute walk. Today the campus was much quieter than usual.
“It’s Christmas break, the students haven’t come back yet.”
Li Zheng froze for a moment, yes, nowadays in Hong Kong with the British custom, Christmas was an extremely important holiday for them.
“Counting the days, I should be considered a sophomore now.” Li Zheng passed by the school building where he had attended classes.
At that moment, a bright voice came from behind the two of them, “You still know you’re a sophomore.”
Li Zheng turned his head, only to see Xu Mingsheng striding towards them.
A look of surprise appeared on Li Zheng’s face, “Teacher!”
He looked at Xu Mingsheng carefully, “It seems that your health is better.”
Xu Mingsheng smiled and nodded as he patted his once-injured leg, “The initial surgery was well done, ah, although I have fallen victim to gout, I can still walk very well.”
“That was, after all, the surgery done by Professor Chen himself, and the skills of the teacher’s wife is naturally excellent.” Li Zheng teased.
Xu Mingsheng froze, he obviously didn’t expect this, after reacting he laughed out loud, “Yes, yes, our old Chen’s professional skills are still over the top.”
All three people laughed.
Only then did Xu Mingsheng see Liang Zhe beside Li Zheng, he was taken aback by the fact that Mr. Liang was actually with Li Zheng at this time, and he couldn’t help but feel strange.
“Hello, Professor Xu.” Liang Zhe greeted Xu Mingsheng politely.
Both Li Zheng and Liang Zhe had no serious elders. When facing Li Zheng’s grandfather and mother, although Liang Zhe was nervous, he didn’t have much positive contact with them because he didn’t know Li Zheng’s stance towards them.
However, Xu Mingsheng and Li Zheng had the friendship of teacher and disciple. A master, in the traditional Chinese culture, was definitely a proper elder.
“Greetings, Mr. Liang.” Xu Mingsheng changed his casual attitude toward Li Zheng and greeted Liang Zhe politely.
“Professor is an elder, just call me Liang Zhe directly.”
The doubts in Xu Mingsheng’s heart grew even more, although he was a professor at Heung Kong University, Liang Zhe was after all the helmsman of the Liang family, one of the few highest status people in Hong Kong, wasn’t he a little too polite to him?
Li Zheng saw that the teacher’s suspicion was almost written on his face, so he dryly coughed and quickly change the subject.
“Teacher, why are you still at school so late, isn’t your wife waiting for you to cross the New Year together?”
Xu Mingsheng looked at Li Zheng and Liang Zhe. “After being ill for so long, the progress of the project fell behind. So I did more while I was free these days.”
Xu Mingsheng’s research on antibiotics continued. Although carbapenem antibiotics had been developed, with the abuse of antibiotics, drug resistant strains had developed rapidly. Once the research on antibiotics couldn’t keep up with the development of drug resistant strains, it would be a disaster for the the entire human race.
“Teacher, the project is important but your body is more important, you have to take care of your body.”
“You’re still talking about me, you’ve been in the lab since you got back from Dorman, that’s how long it’s been. I wanted to meet you, but I was afraid to disturb your research. It is the same back to you, the project is important, but your body is more important.” Xu Mingsheng said in a good-natured way.
“What’s more, both the college and the school have discussed it. We will make you a graduate of Hong Kong University. We will be scolded by others, so get ready. At the beginning of next year, the Medical School of Hong Kong University will hold a separate graduation defense for you.”
“All the professors of Hong Kong University School of Medicine will participate in this defense, as well as the medical departments of Tokyo University, Seoul University and National University of Singapore.”
“Hey, don’t look at me like that.” Xu Mingsheng saw that Li Zheng’s expression was a bit strange and vaguely touched his nose “Okay, okay, I’ll be honest. We mean to show off, but it’s true that you are a student of Hong Kong University. Our student has made such great achievements, why shouldn’t we show off?! If they have the ability, they should pick up such a treasure.”
In the last sentence, Xu Mingsheng’s voice was extremely low, as if it was said to himself.
“Teacher ……” Li Zheng helplessly said, but he was more happy in his heart, with his current international status, his Hong Kong’s University’s student reputation was no longer a help but a resistance. Now Hong University was doing this, it was naturally a good thing for him.
“I see, teacher, I will prepare well. I will never let you and Hong Kong University lose face.”
“Won’t lose face, won’t lose face.” Xu Mingsheng smiled in satisfaction.
Unable to resist Xu Mingsheng’s warm invitation, Li Zheng and Liang Zhe followed Xu Mingsheng back to his home.
“Old Chen ah, look who I brought back.” Xu Mingsheng said loudly to the door before he even entered.
Chen Sufen came out, “Who is it that can make you so excited?”
There was a smile in her voice, and when she saw Li Zheng, the smile on her face became even more obvious.
“Xiao Zheng, come, come, come in. It’s long past time for you to come and sit at home.” She said enthusiastically as she took Li Zheng’s hand.
“Mr. Liang?” Pulling Li Zheng over, Chen Sufen saw Liang Zhe at the side, and her face took on a slight uncertainty.
“Well, this is my good friend, Liang Zhe.” Li Zheng took the initiative to introduce him to Chen Sufen.
“Mr. Liang, come in quickly, the evening snack is warming up on the pot, let’s have some together.”
The two were warmly welcomed into the living room.
The sofa in the living room already had two identical-looking cats lying on it, and when they saw people come in, the two cats’ eyelids lifted but they paid no attention.
Li Zheng quietly laughed, “I didn’t expect you to have this interest.”
“I’m older, and the children are not around, so I rely on these two little guys to amuse me. They both look exactly the same, but their habits are completely different.”
“The one on the left grew up domestic, it has a delicate body, eating some human food will cause it to have diarrhea, we can only feed it cat food. The one on the right is wild and has teeth that can break bones, and is even more aggressive than our next-door neighbor’s dog.”
“Life is so interesting. Obviously they’re the same creature, but different environments can make them have such obvious differences. The mysteries of biology are endless.”
Not far away, the New Year’s bell from the church rang.
The bell was clearly ringing in his ears, but Li Zheng felt that his head was ringing.
“Teacher, I suddenly remembered something, I have to go first!” Without looking back, he ran into the night.
Liang Zhe said sorry to the two, chased after Li Zheng and left.
At this time, the clock on the wall stopped at 12, which announced the end of 1984 and the arrival of 1985.