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The first thing that caught his eye was a low rectangular table, and behind it was a tatami mat. A thin Japanese old man leaned against the table and put a polite smile on his face when he saw Li Zheng and his group enter.

He smiled politely on his face when he saw Li Zheng and his group enter. “Please change it into Japanese currency.” Li Zheng took out ten dollars with the portrait of Benjamin Franklin on them. He took out ten dollars with Benjamin Franklin’s portrait on them. This kind of private exchange agency only accepted international mainstream currencies as a precautionary measure. In the 1980s, neither the Chinese currency nor the Hong Kong dollar was among the mainstream currencies.

The old Japanese man looked at the young man with some surprise, “The exchange rate of the dollar to the yen is about 100:2100 now.”

Li Zheng nodded his head, and naturally, there would be some profit in the private exchange as opposed to the official one; 1000 yen was only 42 US dollars, which was not expensive.

The old man smilingly handed over a wad of yen to Li Zheng when he saw Li Zheng’s agreement and took a look at the bags carried by the Chinese scholars behind Li Zheng and said, “You want to buy small electrical appliances, you don’t have to go to Ginza, where the rent is high and the price of things goes up. Let me tell you if you go out from my place, go east, and turn at the third traffic light, there is a market specializing in selling home appliances, and the price is much cheaper.”

Li Zheng was stunned and barely understood what the old man was saying, “Thank you, old man.” He thanked the old man politely.

The old man waved his hand, “You’re welcome, it’s something that all locals know.”

Li Zheng pulled the door for the old man and turned around to face the group of Chinese scholars.

The Chinese scholars’ faces were somewhat ugly, and the colleague who just understood Japanese translated the old man’s words for them, making the old professors’ good mood of buying their favorite electrical appliances disappear.

In the 1980s, the salary of an ordinary university professor was only 50 to 60 Chinese dollars a month, which was equivalent to 700 to 900 Japanese dollars, and this time, in addition to the foreign exchange allocated by the state on a per capita basis, they had privately dragged out many connections to convert their family savings into Japanese dollars. The small home appliances they were carrying now were often the savings of a family over several years.

Now they were being told that they are too expensive. The professors were naturally not in a good mood, but they could not return these items for the sake of their scholars’ nobility and the country’s face.

Li Zheng touched his nose, he had accidentally spoiled the mood of the old-timers.

Because of Li Zheng’s presence, Professor Meng’s group quickly adjusted their mood. Chen Anbang looked at Li Zheng with a little embarrassment, “Little comrade, I don’t have that much money to exchange for your Japanese currency.”

Li Zheng’s phoenix eyes curved beautifully as he pointed to the watch in Chen Anbang’s hand, “Just exchange this with me.” The watch in Chen Anbang’s hand was finely crafted but a bit rustic in style, with three small words “Five Star Brand” on the top of the white, slightly yellowish dial and the words “Made in China” written in large letters in the center of the dial.

In 1955, the first watch made by Chinese people was born in Tianjin, China, the “Five Star” watch. In 1957, Five Star officially changed its name to “May Day”.

In the watch-playing world of later generations, the price of a May Day watch had already broken through six figures, while a Five Star watch with a lifespan of only two years had no price at all. Naturally, Li Zheng didn’t want the watch to be a collector’s item, but just wanted to keep it as a souvenir when he saw the four words “Made in China”.

Chen Anbang opened his mouth but paused, this watch had been worn by his father for about 30 years. If life was not really tight, he would have changed the Shanghai brand like his colleagues.

“Little comrade, this is not worth a few dollars. I’ll give you an IOU at …….” Chen Anbang said.

“Forget it, don’t buy it. I’ll just let her read the book herself, no need for any tape recorder.” Chen Anbang waved his hand as if he didn’t care and said.

“The first watches made in China are worth much more to me than this pile of yen. If it has no special meaning to you, I ask that you exchange it for me. Just to keep it around as a souvenir.” Li Zheng’s voice was not high, but in the hearts of the group of Chinese scholars, it was hard to conceal the shock.

Professor Meng took a deep look at Li Zheng, “Ah, Little Chen, you can trade with him. Little comrade is a kind-hearted one.”

Although Chen Anbang was still a little embarrassed, looking at Li Zheng’s serious expression, he finally unwrapped his watch with a bitter smile, “If you go to China in the future, you can come to me at Huaqing University and I’ll give you your money back.”

Li Zheng took the watch and put it directly on his wrist, “You are always welcome to redeem your watch.”

After exchanging foreign currency, Li Zheng did not follow the Chinese scholars to the appliance market. People’s interactions were gradual, and it was not pretty to be too attentive.

“Gu Gu …… “Li Zheng’s stomach couldn’t help the sound, and he rubbed his own stomach.

Eel rice, eel rice, eel rice~.

The next day, Li Zheng and his group of six took a hotel car to the entrance of the Congress.

Xu Mingsheng led them through the lobby to a large door with the words “Asian Biopharmaceutical Congress Venue” written in English and Japanese.

“Go in, we should be in the first two rows,” Xu Mingsheng said with a smile.

Li Zheng followed the crowd through half of the venue, sweeping his gaze over the seats that were already occupied, and suddenly met with a startled look, Li Zheng smiled politely at Professor Meng, who watched with an open mouth as Li Zheng passed by their seats and walked to the front two rows to sit down.

“Old He, look, is that little comrade the one we met yesterday?” Professor Meng was busy poking and prodding Professor He’s hand.

When Professor He stood up, he just happened to see Li Zheng sitting down.

“Hey? That’s true! It’s really that guy I met yesterday!” Professor He said affirmatively.

As the group of Chinese scholars looked at each other, Chen Anbang said softly, “That’s the location of the University of Hong Kong, right?”.

An inexpressible silence spread around the crowd at the mention of Hong Kong ……. This term always had a different status in the hearts of Chinese people.

It took a long time before Professor Meng spoke up, “Chief Deng said that Heung Kong will definitely return!”

“Yes, yes, Hong Kong will definitely return!”

“That little comrade, he never forgot his country when he is in Hong Kong, with people like that, why worry about Hong Kong not coming back?”

On the other side, Xu Mingsheng looked at the arrangement of the conference process and smiled lightly, “It’s Richard from the University of London, he got nominated for a Nobel Prize award the year before, I didn’t expect that the conference would invite him as a guest.”

Xu Mingsheng had had many dealings with Richard, who was also a teacher in an institution of higher learning under the rule of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

The first academic presentation was done by the University of London Medical Laboratory, and the final culmination was done by Richard himself. The others, including the host University of Tokyo, were drawn by lot to determine the order of priority.

Kagawa University was not unlucky, getting eighth-place and falling in the middle of the pack.

It was only at the beginning of the academic presentation at the University of London Medical Laboratory that the face of Xu Mingsheng changed. The University of London’s lecture at the meeting was “A Clear Model of the RESE Virus”.

“How can this be! Old Xu, what should we do?” Even though he was usually calm and collected, Professor Zhao still seemed a little panicked in this situation.

Xu Mingsheng’s face could almost drip ink. The Asian Biopharmaceutical Congress, as you could hear from its name, was a conference for academic exchange among many universities and research institutes in Asia.

The academic presentations were the most important part of it.

As one of the top universities in Asia, Hong Kong University was required to give two presentations at the conference, one academic presentation and one responsible presentation.

In the case of Hong Kong University, it was to call attention to specific diseases such as “frozen blood”.

The academic report was not to be taken lightly, as it represented the academic level of the university and may even influence the university’s global ranking the following year. That was why the University of Hong Kong chose to publish an SCI paper on “The Shape of the RESE Virus Conjecture” in July this year, which was just published in “Virus”.

But now, the University of London had even made a clear model of RESE virus, they would discuss again, was this not a blow to their faces?

 

“Don’t you have a spare?” Xu Mingsheng’s voice was very low.

Prof. Zhao and Prof. Wang looked at each other and smiled bitterly at the same time, “This year, a total of one global research result has been published by Hong Kong University Biopharmaceuticals. If the results of the previous two years are taken out, we really can’t afford to lose this time.”

A silence fell over the seating area of Hong Kong University.

Xu Mingsheng’s eyes swept over the frowning Li Zheng, then fiercely recalled something, and a hint of joy flashed in his eyes.

“Li Zheng, have you finished writing your thesis yet?”

Li Zheng was stunned for a moment, and then he realized that Xu Mingsheng was talking about his thesis on the drug “Frozen Blood Syndrome”, and his face showed a trace of consternation, “The first draft is finished ……”.

Xu Mingsheng didn’t wait for Li Zheng to finish his sentence, he slapped his thigh hard, “You’re the one, you have to hold the scene for me!”

Li Zheng was dumb, he really wanted to let him go on stage ……

“It’s just a first draft, I’m afraid it’s not rigorous enough.”

Xu Mingsheng waved his hand, “A new drug is enough to overwhelm all the schools, only this drug patent ……” he gritted his teeth, “Half an hour for each school, there are three and a half hours left. Xiao Zhang, you immediately go to the Japanese Patent Office to register the patent!”

After Xu Mingsheng finished speaking, he turned to Li Zheng with a hint of apology on his face.

“Li Zheng ah, this thesis is your personal one, I ……” Xu Mingsheng carefully considered the statement, if there was really a chance, he would not have opened this mouth.

Li Zheng smiled lightly, “Teacher, this new drug, I originally did not intend to gain profit from it. I have to thank you, Teacher, for giving me the opportunity.”

Xu Mingsheng’s decision, however, gave Li Zheng a better platform.

Didn’t he once say that Hong Kong University’s appeal wasn’t convincing enough, so a new drug, one that donated its patent proceeds to specialty drug research, was convincing enough.