Tears Don't Fall Easily

This pharmaceutical company is called Yorick Company, and its actual controller is a minor nobleman of royal descent.

Ji Peiyan thought hard for a while before saying, "I have never written about this company, nor do I plan to write about it. Are you suspicious?"

Wei Shao shook his head: "I don't know, I just looked at the data and felt it was abnormal. I can't rule out the possibility of simple poor management. What were you going to say just now?"

Ji Peiyan asked: "Have you checked the Institute of Pharmacology?"

Wei Shao frowned slightly: "I checked, there is no change in personnel, and the annual inhibitor research projects are progressing normally after approval."

"It's normal, because these projects are real. Just because the higher-ups don't want something to come out doesn't mean it's easy to come out."

This is not difficult to understand, but Ji Peiyan definitely didn't come to him to talk about this.

"so?"

"So I thought carefully about my thoughts when I was serializing it, and I remembered that I had designed a genius pharmacist and was going to hint that he might make a breakthrough in this area, but then I felt it was unnecessary, so I didn't bother to write it. A few days ago, I asked a friend to go to the Institute of Pharmacology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences to inquire about it, and guess what happened?"

Wei Shao asked tentatively: "Is there really such a character?"

"Yes, he was admitted to the Imperial Star from other star fields many years ago. He published several papers on inhibitors while in school. After graduating with a doctorate, he joined the Academy of Sciences, but his scientific research performance has been mediocre." Ji Peiyan said.

Wei Shao suddenly asked, "Is this character called Chu Ersen?"

-

"Chu Ersen, there's something wrong with the equipment over there. Go take a look. If it doesn't work, contact the equipment team to repair it."

"Oh, okay." Chu Ersen quickly put down what he was doing and walked towards the instrument his colleague mentioned.

This took two hours, and by the time the instrument was finally functioning normally, it was already dark.

Chu Ersen walked out of the building, took a look at the deserted cafeteria, and sent a message to his master at home.

"Hey, Chulson?"

"My Lord," Chu Ersen's voice softened, "Are you at home? I think..."

"I'm not home, Chulson. It's Ravi's birthday today and I have to be with him." The other side interrupted him, "Do you have anything else to say?"

Chu Ersen was stunned for a moment, then he looked down at the date on the terminal. Today was indeed the maid Ravi's birthday.

He had no choice but to shake his head: "Nothing, then remember to drink less."

"Yeah." The other end hung up the call.

Chu Ersen shivered in the chilly wind, then wrapped his clothes tightly and walked towards the restaurant outside the institute.

Unfortunately, today is Friday and the first floor of the restaurant is full. Chu Ersen hesitated for a moment, but ultimately did not go to the second floor and turned around to leave.

"Wait, sir."

Chu Ersen looked up blankly and found that Chong at the table on his right was waving at him. Then he realized that the other party was calling him.

He walked over slowly and asked a little stiffly: "Are you calling me?"

"Yes," the bug smiled at him, "the tables on the first floor are full. If you don't mind, we can share a table."

Chu Ersen felt a little embarrassed, but seeing the insect smiling brightly, he couldn't help but feel friendly. He hesitated for two seconds and pulled out the chair opposite.

The other person was a little unkempt, with a pair of bulky black-framed glasses under his thick bangs that almost covered most of his face. His cheeks were also black and white, and he was wearing a black and yellow plaid shirt.

But he had a kind of familiarity that didn't match his appearance. As soon as Chu Ersen sat down, he asked, "Sir, are you the logistics officer of the institute? I seemed to see you coming out of the institute just now."

Chu Ersen's face turned green: "..."

Seeing Chu Ersen's expression was not right, he quickly said: "I was just guessing. I'm sorry if I offended you."

Chu Ersen took a deep breath: "It's okay."

The other party nodded quickly.

Chu Ersen waited for a long time, but when the other party asked him no more questions, he couldn't help but clarify: "I am a researcher."

The other person's eyes widened slightly: "Researcher? Then why did you get off work so late? Are you doing research?"

Chu Ersen: "..."

He suddenly regretted sitting at this table.

He replied vaguely: "Yeah."

The other party said enviously: "That's great."

Chulson noticed that the bug was actually quite young and didn't look like it worked around here, so he asked, "What about you? What do you do?"

"I'm still studying, majoring in pharmacy at Imperial Star University." The man turned around with a curved lip and took out a pile of tattered papers from his bag. "I want to go to graduate school in the future, so I came to take a look in advance to motivate myself."

When Chu Ersen heard that he was majoring in pharmacy, his eyes lit up for a moment, but then quickly dimmed. He curled up his fingers and said nothing, his eyes fixed on the pile of papers.

"Can I see it?"

"Of course." The other party was very generous.

As they were talking, the noodles they ordered were served, but Chu Ersen had no appetite at all.

He stared at the paper, his fingers shaking a little.

The college student opposite said as he ate noodles: "These are all the big guys I admire, especially senior Chu Ersen. He is amazing. He published many papers related to inhibitor research while he was still in school..."

Chu Ersen could no longer hear the rest of the words clearly.

There are many excellent landmark conclusions on paper, some of whose authors have already been buried.

Chu Ersen suddenly said, "Don't come."

His tone was too hurried, too flustered.

The college student didn’t hear clearly: “Huh?”

Chu Ersen calmed down and said seriously, "The research institute is not good, so don't come."

The college student frowned, obviously a little unhappy, but because they were in a public place, he just stuffed the tattered papers back into his bag with a cold face, ignored Chu Ersen's advice, and continued to eat noodles.

Chu Ersen seemed to see his former self.

Thirty years ago, Chu Ersen was still a poor student.

He came from a rather inconspicuous small star region in the empire. His female father was a doctor in a local hospital. When he was ten years old, his female father fell into blood frenzy because he did not receive timely comfort from his male father, which triggered his existing underlying illness and he died unexpectedly.

Since then, Chu Ersen has become obsessed with inhibitors.

After entering university, he did not back down because of the high cost of living in Dixing. He insisted on completing his master's and doctoral studies, and then entered the Academy of Sciences.

In the column about why he chose the Academy of Sciences, he wrote:

I want to develop an inhibitor without side effects so that every female insect can be free from the suffering of blood frenzy.

At that time, the interviewer looked at his answer, just smiled and said nothing.

Many years later, Chu Ersen finally understood the meaning of that smile.

It's a sneer.

Chu Ersen pulled himself out of his memories and looked at the college student who was slurping his soup across from him: "The Academy of Sciences is a good place to work. As long as you know how to handle things, you will have a lot sooner or later, but this is not a place to pursue your dreams."

The college student put down his bowl and frowned, "Don't think so badly of everything."

The expression on his face looked like "Don't judge a pet by yourself" was written all over it.

Chu Ersen stopped talking and ate a few mouthfuls of noodles in silence. Then he took off the nameplate from inside his coat and placed it in front of the college student along with his private contact information.

As he stood up, he whispered, "Kid, if you encounter difficulties in the future, you can contact me."

The college students ignored it.

It was not until Chu Ersen's figure disappeared on the street outside the store that he slowly looked up and put the piece of paper with Chu Ersen's contact information into his pocket.

-

Ji Peiyan: [Have you changed your career to become an actor? No, why are you looking for him? You don't plan to let him develop the inhibitor, right? If this thing fails, you'll all be doomed. 】

Wei Shao lowered his head and typed: [No, let me take another look. 】

To be honest, he did not have any great ambition to change the world. He was not Chu Ersen, who was unwilling to see his dream obscured, nor was he Ji Peiyan, who was completely detached from this world.

He lacks a sense of belonging to this world, yet there are people and things he cannot let go of.

[I just feel that if there is a political change someday, Philo's identity will definitely be involved, and I don't want to be so passive at that time. 】

Ji Peiyan replied: [If that day really comes, as a friend, I advise you to protect yourself first. He is the protagonist, and you are not. 】

Wei Shao: [My new sofa has arrived, let’s chat later. 】

On the other side, Ji Peiyan looked at the blackened head portrait opposite him and thought to himself that if you were in ancient times, you would have to dig wild vegetables sooner or later.

Wei Shao really didn't lie. He did receive a call from the furniture store saying that the truck delivering the sofa was stopped at the entrance of the military department and could not enter.

It is a mandatory rule that unregistered vehicles are not allowed to enter the living area.

Wei Shao hurried downstairs and drove the car, transferred the sofa to the trunk, and only let a deliveryman go in to help.

He was so busy these past two days that he completely forgot about it. When the spacious and soft new sofa was delivered, the old one had not been moved away yet.

Wei Shao frowned and thought about it. He and Fei Luo, two grown men, lived on this floor. Of course, there was no place to put it. If he wanted to put it, he could only...

His eyes lit up: "Master, there is a storage room upstairs. Please help me carry the old sofa to the elevator."

As he spoke, he slipped a tip to the delivery man.

The deliveryman smiled and said, "You are so polite. It's my honor."

The deliveryman helped Wei Shao move the things directly into the house. After Wei Shao saw him off, he began to push the old sofa towards the door of the storage room.

The door of the storage room was locked with a password. Wei Shao was about to open the terminal to ask Philo, but suddenly stopped.

With some ulterior motive in mind, he bent down and entered the date of their first meeting on the combination lock.

"Wrong password——"

Wei Shao hissed, then carefully entered their wedding anniversary.

"Wrong password——"

Wei Shao felt a moment of loss. He curled his lips and thought that Philo must be too lazy to change it in time.

He was originally planning to just ask directly, but then a string of numbers flashed through his mind and he pressed the button subconsciously.

0321.

“Tick-tock—”

The door opened.

Well, it turns out that he and Philo share the same birthday.

It's not bad... although he might not have been there when the other party set the password...

Wei Shao pushed the door with one hand and pulled the sofa behind him with the other.

The moment the door opened completely, he was stunned.

The storage room was not as messy as he had imagined. Instead, it was strangely empty. Standing outside the door and looking inside, the most eye-catching thing in the dark room was the huge equipment compartment in the middle that was shaped like a chair.

Wei Shao suddenly felt uneasy. He put down the sofa, turned on the lighting function of the terminal, and walked in slowly.

He walked to the side of the chair and shone the terminal towards the headrest of the strange "chair". There were many wires extending from there, with sensor-like things connected to the tail, which seemed to be used to connect to the user's spiritual sea.

There was a thick wire under the chair that extended to a shadow pool-like device about two meters away.

Something vaguely flashed through Wei Shao's mind, his knuckles were clenched until they hurt, but there was no expression on his face. He squatted down calmly and checked the instruction label on the bottom of the chair.

Philo's habit of not bothering to remove labels never changed.

The label reads: Memory Imager.

Wei Shao searched and inquired on the Star Network, and finally found out that this was a device from ten years ago, produced by a technology company supported by a noble. The noble had specifically requested this thing, so only two were produced during production. Of course, one was taken by the noble, and the other...

Another one was put up for auction and bought by a mysterious tycoon who was willing to spend a fortune.

The noble wanted this thing because his beloved female servant died due to ineffective treatment and he wanted to see her face again.

...What does Philo want with it?

Wei Shao felt like he was torn in two. The last time he had this feeling was when he learned that Philo was still obsessed with his first love.

oh……

Wei Shao laughed softly, his chest aching from breathing. He thought casually, maybe these two times were the same thing...

He slowly straightened his numb legs, and placed his left hand, which was wearing the terminal, lightly on his chest, illuminating more of the room.

There was a huge storage cabinet built into the wall, half of the door was glass and the other half was a locked metal door.

Behind the first cabinet door, there are restraint ropes, self-locking handcuffs, self-locking chains, knives...

Behind the second cabinet door were boxes of medicines, including stimulants, hallucinogens, suppressants... and some that Wei Shao couldn't name.

Behind the third glass door is a framed photo.

The photo was probably not an original, but a print from an old damaged photo, and the quality was very poor, which was extremely rare among the technologically advanced interstellar Zerg.

The scene in the photo was not pretty. It was a messy and dilapidated space, like a slum. In the distance, there were two thin figures, one big and one small, squatting in front of a pot. Although they were not clear, Wei Shao guessed who one of them was at a glance.

It was the young Philo.

She was not the delicate and lovely girl he had imagined in his dreams. She was short and thin, with flaxen curly hair that was too long and tied up in a bun on top of her head with a rope.

As for the other, he was dressed in tattered clothes, had platinum hair, a sloppy posture, and a face...

Wei Shao thought vaguely: He is somewhat similar to me.

It turns out he looks so much like him.

No wonder.

No wonder.

The curtains blocked out any light that might come in. In the entire space, only the terminal on Wei Shao's little finger was glowing. He squatted on the ground with the upper half of his face hidden in the darkness, and the lower half of his face was neither tense nor relaxed. No emotion could be seen at all, as if he was a little numb.

After a while, a drop of water slid down his chin silently, hitting the floor and leaving a wet stain.