Chapter 464 Stealing my thesis and publishing it in The Lancet?

Three days later, in the capital.

A sudden cold snap struck, causing temperatures to plummet.

The conference room at the Beijing office of Blue Ocean Biopharmaceutical Factory was very warm, but the air pressure was frighteningly low.

"This is outrageous! Utterly shameless! Bandits! Robbers!"

Chen Xinyue slammed a thick English journal onto the table, the spine hitting the solid wood surface with a loud "bang".

It was a newly published copy of The Lancet.

The cover prominently displays a bold English title: "A Breakthrough Study on the Lysis Mechanism of Drug-Resistant Bacteriophages".

First author: Jiakang Lin.

Affiliation: Lin's Life Science Laboratory.

"Factory Manager, look!" Chen Xinyue's fingers trembled with anger as she flipped open the journal and pointed to several charts. "Isn't this our Phase II clinical trial data? They didn't even change the variant number! This is blatant plagiarism!"

Su Yue sat in the main seat, holding an enamel mug in her hands, slowly blowing away the tea leaves on the surface.

Compared to Chen Xinyue's furious outburst, she appeared excessively calm.

They even have the leisure to study the trajectory of tea leaves as they rise and fall.

"What's the rush?" Su Yue took a sip of tea, put down the cup, and reached for the journal.

Turn it over.

The paper is entirely in English, beautifully formatted, and contains detailed data.

It must be said that Lin Jiakang, this returned overseas student, does have some knowledge; at least his English is quite good, and he managed to package a plagiarized article into something respectable.

The article details the culture process, lysis mechanism, and clinical application prospects of bacteriophage "Hunter-9".

The core data cited in the report is indeed exactly the same as the data archived internally by Blue Ocean Labs.

"Factory Director! How can you still laugh?" Chen Xinyue stamped her foot anxiously, looking at the faint smile on Su Yue's lips. "This is top secret! We haven't even published it yet, and he beat us to it! The international academic community only recognizes the first author. If we publish it again, it will be plagiarism!"

"Moreover..." Chen Xinyue lowered her voice, her eyes reddening, "Now there are rumors outside that our top prize is undeserved, that we stole the Lin family's technology. They say that Lin Jiakang is the real developer, and that we used our connections to suppress him before."

"Oh? There's such a saying?"

Su Yue raised an eyebrow and lightly tapped the name "Jiakang Lin" with her fingertip.

"It seems the Lin family has gone all out this time, even waging a media war."

"What do we do then?" Xiao Zhang from the technical department was also anxious. "Should we issue a statement? Or sue them? But cross-border lawsuits are very difficult to win..."

What kind of lawsuit?

Su Yue closed the journal and casually tossed it into the trash can at her feet.

"This kind of garbage isn't worth wasting legal fees on."

She stood up and walked to the window.

Outside the window, several cars bearing the "Lin's Pharmaceutical" logo were swaggering down the street, their rooftop loudspeakers broadcasting the slogan "Revitalize the Glory of Chinese Medicine."

Does Lin Jiakang think he's guaranteed to win?

Do they think that by publishing a paper first, they can turn black into white and claim the technology of a blue ocean as their own?

Innocent.

"Xin Yue." Su Yue didn't turn around, looking at the bustling traffic below. "Do you remember, in my data archive from the second phase of the experiment, there was a special folder?"

Chen Xinyue paused for a moment, then her expression changed slightly as if she remembered something.

"You mean... that experimental group marked 'discarded'?"

"right."

Su Yue turned around, leaning against the windowsill. The sunlight gilded her features, but it couldn't warm the coldness in her eyes.

"The data from that experimental group looks perfect. The phage activity is extremely high, and the lysis rate is three times that of the conventional group. But..."

Su Yue paused, then her smile deepened.

"But what?" Chen Xinyue pressed.

“But that mutant strain has a fatal flaw.” Su Yue held up a finger and waved it in the air. “It is extremely sensitive to temperature. As long as the ambient temperature exceeds 37.5 degrees Celsius—which is the temperature at which a human body develops a low-grade fever—it will quickly become inactive and release a potent neurotoxin.”

Chen Xinyue gasped.

This kind of data should have been destroyed.

But Su Yue deliberately kept it, saying it was as a negative example, and placed it at the bottom of the core database.

Moreover, that folder was not encrypted.

It's like a wallet left on the side of the road, waiting for a greedy person to pick it up.

"So..." Chen Xinyue swallowed, "Lin Jiakang stole that set of toxic data?"

"To be precise, it was his good brother Lin Jiakang, or that traitor Wang Defa, who went to great lengths to 'steal' it from us," Su Yue corrected. "I just didn't stop them."

The people inside looked at each other in bewilderment.

So all of this was a trap set by the factory manager long ago?

Su Yue took out an invitation from her pocket.

The red cardboard and the large gold lettering exude an air of nouveau riche.

[Lin's Life Science Laboratory - New Drug Launch and Academic Exchange Conference]

Time: 2 PM today.

Location: Banquet Hall, Beijing Hotel.

It was the place where Gu Beichen celebrated her birthday a few days ago.

The Lin family's choice of this location was unmistakably provocative.

"Let's go." Su Yue patted the invitation in her palm, making a crisp sound.

"Where to?" Chen Xinyue hadn't recovered from the shock yet.

"Let's go have some tea." Su Yue straightened her collar and strode towards the door. "Since Young Master Lin has set up the stage, how can we not go and show our support?"

"And while we're at it, let's see him off on his final journey."

...

Beijing Hotel.

The place was now bustling with noise.

With its overseas background and the endorsement of The Lancet, the press conference attracted numerous media outlets and industry professionals.

Lin Jiakang, dressed in a white suit with his hair neatly combed, stood on the podium, speaking eloquently into the microphone.

"...Science is rigorous and inviolable. Some people have stolen my research results through shady means and even fraudulently obtained national honors. This is the greatest insult to science!"

The flashbulbs from the audience were going off like crazy.

The reporters, like sharks smelling blood, rushed to hand over their microphones.

"Mr. Lin, are you referring to Ms. Su Yue, who just won the grand prize?"

"Mr. Lin, do you have any evidence?"

Lin Jiakang pushed up his gold-rimmed glasses, a pained expression on his face.

“The evidence is right here.” He held up the journal in his hand. “The data in this paper took me three years to complete in my laboratory in the UK. Every set of data has original records available.”

A gasp of surprise rippled through the crowd.

The foreign experts sitting in the first row nodded frequently, casting admiring glances at Lin Jiakang.