Chapter 129 Going Back on One's Promises
Meanwhile, in Deputy Director Liu's office, Ma Si cried and complained to Deputy Director Liu, "It must be the team leader who plotted against me. Because when the Minister of Health was inspecting, I didn't give him face and talked to him. Otherwise, my work wouldn't have been so coincidental, and the mistake would have happened right after the Minister's inspection."
He paused for a moment, then continued, "And it clearly didn't cause any problems. The equipment could be repaired and used again, but the team leader insisted that the equipment was seriously damaged and used that as a reason to kick me out of the project team. Now that I'm leaving the project team, doesn't that mean all my previous work has been for nothing? Deputy Director Liu, the behavior of the painkiller project team leader is just disrespectful to you!"
He felt that the team leader was the most likely person to plot against him. Although Fang Ren was a suspect, he did not believe that Fang Ren had such great ability to interfere in the analgesic drug project and sabotage his work.
Deputy Director Liu looked very troubled and frowned as he said, "I can't do anything about this. After all, your project team leader has a legitimate reason to ask you to leave the project team. I can't use my power to force you to stay in the project team. Doing so will only cause deeper conflicts. I'll have to ask you to go to another project team for now."
He couldn't possibly offend the head of the painkiller project team for the sake of Maas. After all, the head of the team was much more capable than Maas and was more worth winning over. From beginning to end, in his eyes, Maas was just a discarded pawn, not worth his time and effort.
Mas looked displeased and retorted in a low voice, "The research on painkillers is the most important task of the research institute. Other projects cannot compare to it. Giving it up is like throwing away the watermelon to pick up a sesame seed."
Deputy Director Liu found Mas to be frighteningly naive. He took a deep breath and said in a tough tone, "Who told you to be so careless? You had to offend your project team leader. I wouldn't dare to be as arrogant as you. Stop trying to talk nonsense with me. Either obey my orders or get out of my office."
Upon hearing this, Ma Si knew that Deputy Director Liu was angry, and quickly feigned weakness, saying, "I will unconditionally follow your arrangements."
Deputy Director Liu nodded in satisfaction, then waved to Mas, signaling him to leave his office; he got a headache just looking at Mas.
No sooner had Mas left than his assistant entered Deputy Director Liu's office. He placed the documents that Deputy Director Liu needed on the desk, a slight smile playing on his lips, and without hesitation chose to sow discord between Deputy Director Liu and Mas.
Ever since Mas climbed up to Deputy Director Liu, he has become increasingly arrogant. He has not forgotten the bad things Mas said about him to Deputy Director Liu.
"This Comrade Maas is really useless. Before we could even use him to deal with Comrade Lin Yuanshu, he was already going to ruin himself. He's a hopeless case."
Instead of following his assistant's lead, Deputy Director Liu asked seriously, "Are you sure Lin Yuanshu didn't attack Mas?"
The assistant shook his head and said truthfully, "No, according to my investigation, Comrade Mas's work mistake was most likely an accident. The head of the painkiller project team had a lot of complaints about you, and in order not to further anger the team leader, I dared not investigate too much. However, what I can confirm is that Lin Yuanshu has nothing to do with this matter. She is focused on her own project tasks."
Upon hearing this, Deputy Director Liu's expression became quite subtle, and he said softly, "That's truly a bit of a shame!"
If Lin Yuanshu were to make a move, he would have leverage over her. Unfortunately, she was overly cautious, leaving him no way to act.
The assistant cautiously inquired, "How should we arrange Comrade Mas's work next? After all, Comrade Mas has left the analgesic drug project team and has nowhere to go."
Deputy Director Liu stroked his chin, pondered for a moment, and said softly, "Don't pay too much attention to him. Just assign him to any project team. When I need to deal with Lin Yuanshu, he can become my most useful pawn."
The assistant smiled slightly, "Okay, I know what to do."
He planned to put Maas in those insignificant project teams, and he wanted to see if Maas would still be so smug!
Because Deputy Director Liu was unwilling to stand up for Mas, Mas could only bark helplessly. Apart from resenting the head of the painkiller project team, he could do nothing and eventually had to slink away to other project teams.
In Mas's mind now, the team leader is even more detestable than Lin Yuanshu. At least Lin Yuanshu didn't maliciously ruin his future. Compared to the team leader, Lin Yuanshu is almost too kind.
Fang Ren was initially a little uneasy, worried that Mas would suspect him, since he had just said some harsh words to Mas and was quite suspicious.
To Fang Ren's surprise, Mas didn't even consider him as a suspect, thinking he wasn't capable of doing such a thing. This made Fang Ren feel both relieved and frustrated.
To avoid any further complications, he could only swallow his frustration and try to avoid meeting with Mas. Even when they did meet, he acted as if he looked down on Mas, just like before, to prevent Mas from noticing anything amiss.
A month later, Lin Yuanshu's project team began cultivating "high-yield strains" again. This time, the situation was different from the last time. There were more "high-yield strains" this time, which could withstand their efforts.
Lin Yuanshu's side is progressing smoothly, but the situation on Team Leader Lü's side is not good.
Their research results consistently failed to pass pilot testing. Just when they finally solved one problem, a new one would appear. They could only keep adjusting to address the flaws in the pilot test, but they never achieved the desired results, and the more they adjusted, the worse it got.
That day, the pilot test of Team Leader Lü's project team failed again. One of the team members looked at the mess in the pilot plant, a look of frustration on his face, and muttered to himself, "Could it really be as Comrade Tang Dasi said, that we went in the wrong direction from the very beginning?"
Upon hearing this, Team Leader Lü immediately walked up to the team member and pressed, "What do you mean by that? Did Comrade Tang Dasi discover the problem with our research results beforehand?"
The group member instinctively glanced at the others, who lowered their heads guiltily. The member swallowed hard, reluctantly nodded, and admitted, "Comrade Tang Dasi previously said that our research direction had gone astray, and that there was a high possibility of problems later in the project. We initially thought she was joking because she didn't seem very determined, so we ignored her words. We didn't expect her to be serious. Not only do I know about this, but everyone else does too. I remember Comrade Tang Dasi mentioned it to you as well..."
He was unwilling to admit that his negligence had caused this situation; he couldn't take the blame alone.
Team Leader Lü paused for a moment, then recalled carefully. It seemed there was such a thing. He hadn't paid much attention to it at the time, since they were just unverified statements. Naturally, he wouldn't change his research direction because of them.
He sighed, a hint of regret flashing in his eyes, and lamented, "If I had known that Comrade Tang Dasi was so capable, I shouldn't have assigned her to the Dongfanghong Research Institute. This is just giving Comrade Lin Yuanshu's mission project a boost. No, I have to call Comrade Tang Dasi back."
Upon hearing this, the others immediately became unhappy. After all, they had previously isolated Tang Dasi, and if Tang Dasi returned to the project team and was given important responsibilities by Team Leader Lü, they would certainly suffer the consequences.
One of the team members said anxiously, "Team Leader Lü, think twice before you act! Doing this will not only offend the Dongfanghong Research Institute, but also Comrade Lin Yuanshu. It's not worth it! Even if you bring Comrade Tang Dasi back, she may not be able to find the right research direction. It's better to maintain the status quo and we'll find a way to solve this predicament."
Another group member chimed in, "Yeah! We can always start over. With the experience from last time, we definitely won't make any mistakes this time."
Team Leader Lü ignored all the persuasion from his team members. He said emphatically, "Only by bringing Comrade Tang Dasi over can we be truly powerful. At worst, I'll exchange two team members for Comrade Lin Yuanshu to bring Comrade Tang Dasi back. I'm sure you're all willing to make sacrifices to complete the project. Now is the time to prioritize the overall situation, not to worry about personal gains and losses."
The group members looked extremely grim. When they were persuading Tang Dasi to go to the Dongfanghong Research Institute, they were all righteous and awe-inspiring, but when it came to themselves, they made all sorts of excuses.
They agreed that the greater good should be prioritized, but only if they themselves were not the ones to be sacrificed.
Unfortunately, Team Leader Lü had already made up his mind, and no matter what they said, he did not change his mind.
Team Leader Lü said impatiently, "That's enough. You don't need to say anything more. I won't change my mind once I've made a decision. I'm going to go and discuss this with Director Yu right now. If you were more capable, you would have discovered that our research direction has gone astray earlier, and I wouldn't have had to shamelessly ask Comrade Tang Dasi to come back."
Group members: "..."
They were at their wits' end. They had tried everything, from kind words to harsh ones, but Team Leader Lü wouldn't budge. They could only watch helplessly as he left.
Not long after, Team Leader Lü walked into Director Yu's office and told Director Yu the whole story, albeit a embellished version of it.
After hearing this, Director Yu shouted, "You're being ridiculous! The person has already been arranged; how can we possibly call her back!"
Team Leader Lü looked very dejected and said in a low voice, "I didn't want to do something like this, but our project team's research direction has reached a dead end. No one can come up with any more innovative solutions, so I thought of inviting Comrade Tang Dasi over. She was the one who discovered that our research direction had gone astray. Maybe she has a different idea and can save my project."
Director Yu tapped his fingers lightly on the table, his expression extremely serious. He was deep in thought, never expecting that Team Leader Lü would also misjudge someone, sending the comrade who should never have gone to the Dongfanghong Research Institute.
This is actually quite troublesome to handle; Director Huang isn't someone you can just talk to.
Seeing that Director Yu no longer objected, Team Leader Lü knew that hope had arrived, so he continued, "Our institute's project couldn't beat the Dongfanghong Institute before, so we can't let our penicillin research be inferior to theirs this time! We can't let them continue to be so arrogant. In order to beat them in penicillin research, we can also learn to be shameless like them. Director Yu, don't forget, if it weren't for the Dongfanghong Institute, Comrade Lin Yuanshu would definitely have come to work at our institute."
Director Yu frowned and finally spoke slowly: "It's no use if I agree to this matter. Director Huang also needs to agree. I will accompany you to the Dongfanghong Research Institute. If Director Huang agrees, then everyone will be happy. If he doesn't agree, don't force it."
Team Leader Lü was overjoyed and said, "Great!"
Although he would prefer Director Yu to handle everything himself, this arrangement is acceptable, since Director Yu is willing to help rather than reject his plan.
Around noon, Lin Yuanshu returned to the office area after lunch and fell asleep at his desk. Tang Dasi was crocheting a sweater, while Hong Shuang'er, Zhang Xin, and two interns were looking through information about penicillin. As for the others, they were still wandering around outside and did not return to the office area to rest.
Just then, Director Huang's assistant walked into the office area. He cleared his throat and politely said to Hong Shuang'er, "Could you please wake up Comrade Lin Yuanshu? Director Huang wants her to come to his office now."
Hong Shuang'er nodded, gently patted Lin Yuanshu's shoulder, and called out, "Team Leader Lin, wake up, it's time to get down to business."
Lin Yuanshu wasn't a deep sleeper to begin with, and Hong Shuang'er's call woke her up immediately. She looked at Hong Shuang'er and asked groggily, "What's wrong?"
Hong Shuang'er whispered, "Director Huang's assistant is here and wants you to go to Director Huang's office."
"Okay, I'll go now. If I'm not back by the end of the lunch break, you can continue working as planned and don't wait for me." Lin Yuanshu said as he stood up.
Although her mind was not fully clear yet, her body had already started moving.
She then left the office area with her assistant.
After watching Lin Yuanshu leave, Hong Shuang'er whispered to Tang Dasi, "I'm really curious why Director Huang wanted to see Team Leader Lin. Could it be that the raw materials for penicillin production have arrived again?"
Tang Dasi shook his head and said softly, "It's probably not that the raw materials have arrived. I think it's more likely that Director Huang is asking Team Leader Lin about the progress of the project."
Hong Shuang'er thought about it and also felt that this possibility was higher.
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