C46

“Old man, I’m risking tomorrow’s headlines by stopping the presses. Are you sure this biologist named Li Zheng is Chinese?” Zhu Xin, the editor-in-chief of Xinghua News Agency, was a short, chubby, ordinary middle-aged man, who at first sight one would never have thought that this man with a rustic smile would be the Chinese president. A short, chubby, ordinary middle-aged man.

“Don’t worry, it’s not wrong. He admitted it himself, a native of Shencheng. He also has a grandfather in Huajing. Professor Meng has already dragged his Huajing connections to look for Li Zheng’s maternal grandfather. I’m sure we’ll hear something soon.” Professor Yang said affirmatively on the other end of the phone.

“Well, well, the country is in a difficult time, it just needs inspiring news!”

Zhu Xin excitedly circled the office twice. When he took office, Chief Deng took him by the hand and said to him, “Zhu Xin, everyone says that Xinghua News Agency is another party. The Xinghua News Agency is another party newspaper, a mouthpiece of the government. The government’s mouthpiece, that’s a narrow view. This is a narrow-minded viewpoint. News is to transmit positive energy, to provide spiritual support for the country’s reform and progress. It is to give hope to the people, to make them believe that the future of the motherland is bright!

Zhu Xin flipped through the London Daily News, New York Times, Tokyo Daily News ……, and so on, and his heart was even more excited.

As a newspaperman, he naturally knew that the praise of these media for Li Zheng was watery, and they exaggerated Li Zheng’s greatness in order to belittle their own government, which was the usual method of foreign media.

But the common people did not know that.

With the gradual integration of China into the world, the foreign world was slowly unfolding before the eyes of the people, who suddenly realized that their lives were not as happy as their country’s propaganda and that the lives of foreigners were much better than theirs.

This kind of cognition and disparity had led the Chinese masses into a state of confusion, and many of them had even developed a tendency to “worship foreigners and pander to foreigners”. It was true that they admired others, but fawning over them was a bit too much.

Zhu Xin paced and deliberated on his statement. He decided to make it his first news report in 1983, which he personally wrote.

“Chief Editor, all the departments are here.” The secretary Wang knocked on Zhu Xin’s office door.

Zhu Xin looked up, “Yes, I’ll be right there.” He turned around and tidied up the foreign language newspapers spread across the table, then walked quickly to the conference room.

The meeting room was noisy, especially the old comrades who were in charge of the printing work of society. When they received the news that Zhu Xin had asked the printing company to stop printing, they were so angry that they almost rushed directly to the editor-in-chief’s office.

“Stop publishing now! I want tomorrow’s newspaper to have a sunroof. What the hell was he thinking! No, I have to talk to him.” In the workplace of the 1980s, there was no harsh superior-subordinate relationship, and senior comrades were perfectly capable of yelling at their superiors.

When Zhu Xin walked in the door, he was greeted by a face full of spittle.

Editor-in-chief Zhu wiped his face and coughed twice, “I’m sorry for the delay, let’s have a short meeting.” He spread out the newspaper in his hands and placed it on the conference table.

“What nonsense bird text, can’t understand!” The old comrade had a look at the densely-packed English letters on the newspaper with a look of disgust on his face.

The one from the international team took a quick glance and said, “This is that college student named Li Zheng from the University of Hong Kong, isn’t he amazing? He has a good brain and a good heart, and the foreign media have praised him like a flower. We also reported on him two days ago, so why are you bringing him up again?”

Zhu Xin’s gaze swept over the crowd, his two short hands braced on the conference table, his fat body leaning forward slightly.

“Because this Li Zheng is Chinese! A Chinese man who developed an original drug!” Zhu Xin almost roared out, his voice fully embodied the fat man’s middle-aged characteristics, roaring so loud that almost the entire hallway could hear.

Chinese?! There was another moment of silence in the conference room, and then the entire room boiled over like a pot had burst into flames.

As journalists with a keen sense of smell, all of them in the room knew what this meant!

“Old Xu, you immediately involve the page, It will be a long article, you reserve a good place. Lao Chen, you contact the printing company, they will be working overtime today. Also, Zhang, your international team will collect more information about Li Zheng. Xiao Wang, try to find Li Zheng’s grandfather in Beijing. Let’s take our positions and try to get our new headlines out before midnight.”

“Good.”

“Got it.”

Even the old comrade who was in charge of printing put a smile on his face, “Who says we are inferior to others?

The crowd left with a big laugh.

Little did Li Zheng know that he had unknowingly brushed off a wave of presence in China. After the three-day Biopharmaceutical Conference, Xu Mingsheng wanted to pay a visit to his old friends in Japan, so the delegation from Hong Kong University stayed in the hotel.

But to Li Zheng’s surprise, the Chinese scholars and their group did not go back.

The hotel cooperated with the Asian Biopharmaceutical Congress was a standard four-star hotel, and it was located in the center of Tokyo, so the price for one day’s stay was not cheap.

As for the production line, Li Zheng has already contacted the British equipment manufacturers through David and his colleagues. Under David’s mediation, the manufacturer agreed that Li Zheng could buy a Class II production line produced in 1978 in the name of the laboratory.

Although there was still some reluctance, it was the best result.

The goods could be bought, but how to transport them safely to China was the biggest problem. Li Zheng inevitably thought back to those two phone calls last night.

After a night’s sleep, his anger had calmed down quite a bit. Sometimes thinking about asking for help was not as good as doing research, he was a little too impetuous.

“Qian, honestly, the equipment in the second factory can’t produce the drug that will satisfy Pfizer.”

Li Zheng walked through the corridor of the hotel, his eyes sweeping over the conference hall not far away, and found a familiar figure, Chen Anbang.

He was more familiar with Chen Anbang than Meng Jiayin.

The old man who was devoted to the pharmaceutical industry of China was a mentor and friend of Li Zheng in his last life, and they had a good relationship.

In this life, Chen Anbang was only in his early thirties, and he was still a vigorous young scholar.

“But, you clearly said no problem! You clearly said … ” Qian Zhen was shaking with anger. He invited them to eat and drink for three or four days. The money spent on eating every day was enough for several Chinese people to live for several months. Now, these foreigners had turned their faces and refused to recognize people!

The foreigner shrugged his shoulders, “Qian, there is a language barrier between us, you may not have heard my presentation clearly. We are giving you the opportunity to send the information of the second factory of Zin Pharmaceutical to Pfizer’s qualification evaluation department, unfortunately, C-, Pfizer can’t find a pharmaceutical company with a C- rating to be our drug OEM.”

“That’s not what you originally said! You said it was no problem, and you promised you’d give the list to our factory!”

“Sorry, we didn’t say that.”

Chen Anbang looked at Qian Zhen, whose eyes were bloodshot, and couldn’t say what he felt. His wife was an employee of the Second Jin Medicine Factory. She described Qian Zhen as an earthly emperor, who was the highest in the factory. Such a person actually stooped so low in front of these foreigners.

“Teacher Chen, that day, the day that you and Professor Meng were together, you also heard that they promised me. Isn’t it?” Qian Zhen turned his head and grasped Chen Anbang’s hand tightly, asking hopefully.

Chen Anbang was dumbfounded, but he and Professor Meng didn’t go in at all that day and left after having a few words with Qian Zhen. How could he have heard his conversation with the foreigners?

“Why don’t you all believe me, they really agreed! I’ve been a pharmacy director for many years, but I graduated from the Foreign Service Institute. How could I not understand English!”

Four days of food money, as well as before and after he sent these foreigners eight bottles of Maotai, four imported watches. The money sent by his employees had been spent, and he himself had put up with a lot of things, so if he couldn’t get this list, Qian Zhen really intended to jump into the Huangpu River.

Qian Zhen’s voice wasn’t small. Li Zheng stood three or four meters away, and he could still hear clearly.

Through the unsealed blinds, he clearly saw a foreigner standing behind his two companions, secretly making a “stupid” gesture at Qian Zhen.

Li Zheng’s eyebrows furrowed, something was definitely fishy here. He took two steps forward and tapped his knuckles twice on the door of the conference room. Before the people in the meeting room could react, Li Zheng pushed the door in on his own.

According to Chen Anbang’s statement later, Li Zheng walked in that day with an aura of a king.

“Li Zheng?” Chen Anbang recognized the visitor first.

Li Zheng nodded to him, his eyes sweeping over Qian Zhen, who was forcibly suppressing his anger and finally placed them on the foreigners in the conference room.

“Pfizer’s people?” Li Zheng narrowed his eyes.

Several foreigners looked at each other.

“This person looks so familiar.”

“Oriental people all look the same.” After a brief conversation, a slightly older foreigner frowned at Li Zheng and said, “Friend, you are very rude. Yes, we are Pfizer’s employees.”

Li Zheng sneered, “It’s true that you are Pfizer’s employees, but you’re not from the production department, are you? Let me guess what you are doing in Tokyo, sponsoring the Biopharmaceutical Congress? Or a seminar for an interested scholar?”

Having dealt with pharmaceutical companies for half of his life, he knew all too well the crookedness of those pharmaceutical companies. As with all large companies, there was a clear division of authority and responsibility within a pharmaceutical company. The selection of a foundry owner was evaluated by the production department and approved by the upper management.

The production department often needed to visit the site and screen the foundry owners, unlike the foreigners in front of them. Looking at these foreigners’ eyes above their heads and being extremely good at speaking, Li Zheng guessed that these people should be from Pfizer’s secondary department.