Chapter 754 Catching a Turtle in a Jar Chen Wen's heart almost skipped a beat. He froze in place, not daring to breathe.

It wasn't until Master Zhang's snoring began to even out again and the hand holding him slipped away weakly that he breathed a sigh of relief and carefully hung the key back in its place.

"It turned out to be a dream..." Chen Wen wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and secretly felt lucky that his actions were still unnoticed.

Listening to Master Zhang's rhythmic snoring, I began to plan my next move.

But he didn't see that Master Zhang, who had his back to him, quietly opened his eyes in the darkness, with a knowing smile passing across the corners of his mouth.

The next morning, Master Zhang acted as if nothing had happened and called Chen Wen to work as usual.

"Xiao Chen, how did you sleep last night? I have an old habit of snoring when I drink. I hope I didn't disturb you?" Master Zhang asked casually while rolling a cigarette.

Chen Wen felt guilty and quickly waved his hands, "No, no, Master, you sleep so soundly, I'll sleep through the night too."

"That's good."

Master Zhang lit a cigarette, blew out a puff of smoke, squinted his eyes and looked in the direction of the pre-treatment workshop in the distance, and said meaningfully:

"This person is just like the way we process medicinal herbs in our factory. If the heat is not enough, you can't rush it. If the heat is too high, it will easily become burnt."

Chen Wen's heart was pounding when he heard this, and he could only respond vaguely.

Master Zhang's seemingly casual words made him uneasy for several days, and he couldn't help being a little absent-minded while working.

He secretly observed Master Zhang, but found that the old man was still cheerful and didn't care about anything. He was never vague when it was time to order him around, and never missed a cigarette when it was time to take a break.

However, Master Zhang secretly found Lao 늵 with that doubt in his heart.

Master Zhang puffed on his cigarette holder. "Old man, that little Chen Wen is hard to keep. His mind is elsewhere. He's looking at the pretreatment workshop like a weasel looking at a chicken. Something's not right. When you have time, why don't you check him out?"

The old man nodded and said, "Okay, I'll let Zhou Fang go and find out the truth. He's smart and has many connections."

Zhou Fang has been in Suicheng for so long that he has built up some connections.

A few days later, Zhou Fang found Lao Bai and Sun Xiangqian with a simple investigation report.

"This Chen Wen has a very complicated background. His advisor when he was studying in Singapore, Matsumoto Yuichi, was a Japanese."

The office suddenly became quiet.

Sun Xiangqian frowned. "Japanese? Going through so much trouble? First send a team of experts to inspect openly. If that doesn't work, send someone else in to sneak in?"

"It seems that after Dr. White and his team returned, they haven't given up. Or rather, the capital behind them hasn't given up. If they can't get it openly, they're thinking of doing it secretly."

"So what do we do now?"

"How about giving Qingyang a call?"

They have become accustomed to calling him and asking him to make the decision whenever they are undecided.

Lu Qingyang was at school at this time and was called to answer the phone again.

After hearing what happened, he said calmly, "Don't worry. They want the secret recipe, so let's prepare one for them and catch them in the act."

A few days later, late at night, everything was quiet.

Chen Wen finally figured out the other technician's habit of placing his keys based on his performance over the past few days and secret observations.

He found the right opportunity and successfully used his homemade wax mold key, combined with the key mold stolen from Master Zhang.

Everything went so smoothly that he couldn't help but feel it was too easy.

For the first time, I actually opened the inner door that required two keys.

There were no high-tech instruments in it as he had imagined. Instead, it looked more like an old medicine workshop.

The air was filled with a rich and complex medicinal aroma.

With the dim light of the flashlight, he saw a book carefully wrapped in brown paper lying on the desk.

Chen Wen was so excited that his hands were shaking and he couldn't wait to open it.

Inside is a complete handwritten record of the various medicinal ingredients, their combinations, steaming and drying temperatures, and extraction times...

"Finally...finally got it!" he muttered to himself, and quickly took out his micro camera to take pictures page by page.

As he was shooting the last few pages,

“Bang!”

All the lights in the workshop suddenly lit up, and the dazzling white light made him nowhere to hide.

Sun Xiangqian and Master Zhang, who had a half-smile on his face, walked in from the door together.

Master Zhang was still holding the bunch of keys in his hand, which were jingling.

"How did you get in here so late at night? What are you doing here?"

Chen Wen's face turned pale, and the camera in his hand fell to the ground with a clang.

Sun walked over, picked up the camera, and then picked up the "Core Minutes." He flipped to the last page and read the following passage: "... Remember, catalytic enzyme activity must be maintained with sincerity. Using devious means is like trying to catch the moon in the water; it will ultimately be futile. — A word of encouragement to those who spies on secrets."

This was clearly written not long ago.

Chen Wen instantly understood that he had been calculated by others from the beginning to the end.

The old man waved his hand, and two security officers came forward to support the limp Chen Wen.

Master Zhang walked up to him and sighed, "Xiao Chen, I've told you before, don't rush until the heat is right. Your heat... not only isn't there yet, you've gone astray."

"According to the rules, this matter must be reported. How it will be handled later depends on what they say. But since we caught him red-handed, he'll be in big trouble."

Sun Qianjin nodded, his expression returning to seriousness. "Well, the procedure must be followed. This incident also reminds us that our medicine has become really popular now. It attracts all kinds of monsters and demons. We need to strengthen the protection of our work."

A few days later, the handling opinions came down.

Considering that this incident involves foreign forces stealing core secrets of Chinese enterprises and is of a serious nature, Chen Wen was formally handed over to the public security for handling in accordance with the law.

At the same time, the higher authorities also took this opportunity to express their solemn position to the relevant parties through specific channels, which played a deterrent role.

The spy scandal was like a sudden downpour, coming hard and going away quickly.

The factory has returned to its former bustle, the machines still roar, but the old man knows that the undercurrent beneath the surface has never stopped.

Sure enough, Lu Qingyang called again.

"Relying solely on locks and rules can only protect against the emperor, not the villains. If Chen Wen can get in, there's no guarantee he won't be able to attack Zhang, Wang, Li, or Zhao Wen. We have to solve the problem fundamentally."

"What do you mean?"

"We've implemented a closed-loop production system, connecting the core steps of herbal material pretreatment, extraction, and concentration with pipes and sealed equipment. There's no intermediate link on the ground, and the entire process is automated. Humans only monitor instrument parameters at the terminal. This way, apart from me and a few people in the core R&D team, no one else has access to the complete process."

The old man's eyes lit up when he heard this; this method sounded very reliable.

Then he was in trouble again: "Qingyang, this idea is good, but we don't have those automatic control valves and precision sensors here."

"If there's no such thing, we'll find a way to make it. Don't worry."

Hearing Lu Qingyang's affirmative tone, the old man was relieved.

He promises to do things, and basically he can do them.

It never rains but it pours.

A few days later, Zhou Fang walked in with a not-so-good look on his face, holding a newly arrived international letter and a document.

He spread the documents on the table. "Dr. White's laboratory has partnered with several international pharmaceutical companies to preemptively register the patent framework for a drug with similar uses in their major markets. Although our formula and technology are completely different, the scope of their patent is very broad. If we develop a new drug in the future, they will likely use patent barriers to choke us."

"Also, the Yunnan and Guizhou specialty medicinal herb supplier we've been working with just received a letter saying they're offering a price way above the market price. They want us to cover their production of several specific qualities of Gastrodia elata and Tianma in the next two years. This is closely related to White and the others. They're trying to cut off our supply at the source!"

Technological blockades, patent traps, raw material encirclement... the opponent's combination of punches is more ruthless than the last.