C94

Li Zheng came out of Wen Xuefeng’s house, walked downstairs, then he saw a black car, an old man on crutches standing next to the car slightly raised his head.

 

 

Li Zheng followed his gaze.

 

 

He was looking at Wen Xuefeng’s house.

 

 

“Professor? Shall we go up?” The young man next to the old man finally spoke.

 

 

The old man was silent, then he shook his head, “No, they won’t want to see me.” The old man nodded to Li Zheng and bent over to get into the car.

 

 

Li Zheng stood in place as he looked at the distant car, he shook his head.

 

 

 

There was no pill for regret, everyone had to bear the consequences for their actions.

 

 

A week later

 

 

Ma Wenmin returned to the lab on time, she looked solemn, her gaze firm, as if she had completely come out of grief.

 

 

“Mrs. Ma is back.”

 

 

“Hello, Mrs. Ma.”

 

 

The people in the lab greeted Ma Wenmin one after another. But after all, they weren’t professional actors, to Ma Wenmin, the crowd pretending to be relaxed seemed a bit awkward.

 

 

 

But it was this awkward performance that caused a surge of warmth in Ma Wenmin’s heart, making her even more sure of her decision.

 

 

“Li Zheng, I have something for you to see.” She took out an employment contract from her bag, with her and Wen Xuefeng’s signatures on it, dated more than a month ago, the day Wen Xuefeng and Ma Wenmin first reported to Li Zheng’s lab.

 

 

 

Li Zheng’s face flashed with a trace of consternation, “Mrs. Ma, I am not a person who takes advantage of people’s disadvantages. Even though Mr. Wen is gone, our original agreement still stands. The project of ‘in vitro regeneration of organs’ will always belong to you and Teacher Wen.”

 

 

Once the employment contract came into effect, the “in vitro regeneration” was a project that would last within their employment period, and the academic results belonged to the laboratory by default.

 

 

Just like Wen Xuefeng and Ma Wenmin in Dong Juncheng’s laboratory, their preliminary work was done during the employment period signed with Dong Juncheng’s laboratory, so legally speaking, this academic achievement really belonged to Dong Juncheng’s laboratory.

 

 

It was just that Professor Dong’s behaviour was so ugly that he refused to even share the glory, treating it as his personal research.

 

 

Ma Wenmin shook her head as she laughed bitterly, “Li Zheng, ah, I’m also a professional scholar. When Xuefeng was around, I was selfish, thinking that maybe God took pity on us and a miracle would happen. But it turns out that there are not so many miracles above science, I have been working on this project for twelve years, and I know very well whether it can be done or not.”

 

 

“I have to admit that you are a genius. You just read the information a few times, and then sorted out the whole experiment, and you even had an idea for the next step of the experiment. The world says that God let Newton be born in order to help mankind understand the world. But I think that God let you, Li Zheng, appear in order to let mankind understand life itself.”

 

 

Li Zheng was stunned by Ma Wenmin’s words. He didn’t expect that Ma Wenmin would have such a high opinion of him, and then he started sweating.

 

 

He opened his mouth, not knowing what to say, he couldn’t say that in the late 1990s, Chinese biologists would successfully grow human ears on mice, and that he had read the examples of his “predecessors” to clarify his experimental thinking, right?

 

 

“Mrs. Ma, I ……”

 

 

“You don’t need to be modest. The old man, before he died, he also figured out the reason why after so many years Dong Juncheng’s laboratory hasn’t entered the next stage of experimental results, it’s because we couldn’t complete it, he signed the contract himself, he said he was very happy to join Li Zheng’s lab before he died.”

 

 

Ma Wenmin smiled through her tears, she seemed so strong that it was admirable.

 

 

Li Zheng couldn’t say what he felt in his heart, he suddenly felt a heavy weight on his shoulders, Wen Xuefeng and Ma Wenmin made him feel the responsibility of being a laboratory leader for the first time.

 

 

In his previous life, although he held the position of a honorary professor of China and director of the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Research, they were all false titles. It was entirely because of his achievements in attacking cancer that made him a representative figure in the biomedical community of China. His posting in these institutions played the role of a mascot.

 

 

But now it was different, Li Zheng’s lab was his personal lab, and he had to take responsibility for it.

 

 

“I know how much weight I have, we couldn’t do it when the Old Man was around, and it’s even more impossible for me to do it alone. Li Zheng, I wish I can see the results of this project come out for Old Man Xuefeng! So, please, take over this project.” Ma Wenmin turned to Li Zheng and bowed deeply.

 

 

There was silence in the laboratory.

 

 

Li Zheng helped her up immediately Ma Wenmin bent down. But for Ma Wenmin’s request, he didn’t reply. Li Zheng’s eyes were downcast, as if he was pondering.

 

 

Liu Sichao looked at Ma Wenmin and then at Li Zheng: “Li Zheng, Mr. Li, please agree. To be honest, the way Old Wen left is suffocating to us. We have to quickly wash away the stigma on both of them. If people’s impressions are deeply rooted after two or three years, it will be difficult for you to reverse the case. ”

 

 

“I can also see that you have your own ideas about this project. To put it bluntly, whoever does this project can’t casually do it, there has to be an actual result. You push me and I push you here. If you push for one more minute, those patients will suffer for one more minute. What’s it called? It’s a waste of time. Old Wen and Mrs. Ma are the project heads, and when the results come out, that’ll be the end. ”

 

 

Everyone nodded in response.

 

 

Li Zheng rubbed his temples, refusing now would make him look hypocritical.

 

 

“Teacher Ma, I’ll do my best.” He purposely said he’d try his best.

 

 

She naturally heard the meaning of Li Zheng’s words and had mixed feelings, both happy that she would probably see the results of the project soon, and sad that her husband wouldn’t see the day.

 

 

“Thank you, really thank you.” Ma Wenmin held Li Zheng’s hand tightly.

 

 

In order to make the project results available as soon as possible and clear the stigma on Wen Xuefeng and Ma Wenmin, Li Zheng’s lab was fully staffed. Li Zheng was the main experimenter, Ma Wenmin was the first deputy, Zhong Peng and Liu Sichao were the second deputy, and Zhang Chao and Zhang Yuejun were runners.

 

 

“How many days has the experimental catalog been out? You guys haven’t even contacted the new material company? What are you guys going to do next with this?” Once he entered the work state, Li Zheng completely lost something called ‘human emotions’.

 

 

“Biodegradable and non-toxic? Are my requirements high?” Li Zheng’s gaze coldly swept over the crowd.

 

 

“I, I’ll get in touch right away.” Zhang Yuejun carefully took the contact information of several new material companies from Li Zheng’s hand and ran over to make the calls in a flash.

 

 

“Zhang Chao, get ready for the nose-shaped compression mold, and do it as soon as the materials are delivered.”

 

 

“Yes.” Zhang Chao nodded his head and immediately turned around to make preparations.

 

 

“The culture fluid nutrients have been tested, and the error with the human body is controlled within 0.01 percentage points.”

 

 

“The first step of our experiment is to select the scaffold material, degradable and non-toxic are the most basic requirements, followed by the fusibility with chondrocytes, the degree of degradation and so on, which will be a long and boring process of repeated experiments, I hope you’re ready.”

 

 

In the next few months, the entire staff of Li Zheng’s lab entered into a high workload. Ma Wenmin had been handling her husband’s posthumous affairs for the first few days, followed by high-intensity work, and it was a bit unbearable to her body.

 

 

But she refused to leave the laboratory, according to her, “Don’t underestimate women, when I was at the University of Tokyo, I followed my mentor to do experiments, I went seven days and seven nights without sleep. And since I’m working on something extremely important, I naturally have to push myself.”

 

 

Li Zheng didn’t say anything on the surface, but turned around and called Zheng Lingling and asked her to lead Wen Yue, the daughter of Wen Xuefeng and Ma Wenmin to Qing Garden, and nicely let her rest for the morning.

 

 

The van went in and out, bringing a variety of biodegradable and non-toxic materials to Li Zheng’s laboratory.

 

 

The new polymer material used in the human ear and mouse experiments in the latter days hadn’t yet been released, so Li Zheng had to find its alternative products.

 

 

 

This was also the biggest difficulty for Li Zheng to do research in this era. The instruments and materials that he was familiar with, and even some well-known biological discoveries 30 years later, hadn’t been published yet. It was difficult for a clever woman to cook without a stove, which was why Li Zheng didn’t do more than half of the experiments from later generations at the beginning, but started with new experiments.

 

 

 

Degradation wasn’t completely ruled out, the temperature required for degradation didn’t meet the normal temperature of the human body but it could be ruled by half, a variety of materials and experiments were gathered and time flew as they experimented.

 

 

During this period, Liang Zhe returned to Hong Kong from China, after the Liang’s Cooperation’s second industry moved quietly to the mainland for development. Liang Zhe uncharacteristically began to use his identity as the Liang’s helmsman and became active in the upper echelons of Hong Kong, and his relationship with several old families in Hong Kong increasingly became solid.

 

 

Moreover, if one carefully investigated, they would find that these several families close to the Liang family had a common feature, they were all part of Chinese inland ancestry.

 

 

In July and August 1983, a major event in Hong Kong, the selection of Miss Hong Kong entered the final stage, five girls were shortlisted for the final list.

 

 

Gao Jingying, from an intellectual family, with a beautiful face and outstanding figure.

 

 

Sun Junfang, from a police family, with a gallant look.

 

 

Meng Liuting, a popular young star of ATV.

 

[TN: ATV — Asian Television Media Company]

 

 

Zhu Ning, who won the title of Miss Asia in ‘82, was also the hottest candidate for Miss Hong Kong this year.

 

 

Finally, there was Zhou Sitian, with an outstanding temperament, she looked atmospheric, in the eyes of the public, she was a graduate of Columbia University, she was talented and beautiful, and she had a deep background, she was also a very popular candidate for Miss Hong Kong.