Jackard
After another winding journey, they finally stopped in a bright, open space. Lin Yehuan first took off his hood, glanced back at the portraits of several professors hanging on the wall not far away, took a deep breath, then went inside and looked around to make sure there were no strange portraits before he helped Lu Xingzhi take off his hood.
The system program repair was progressing as slowly as ever, and Lin Yehuan even felt that he could complete the task before it was fully repaired.
“As you can see,” Victor said, walking up to the neatly arranged sample cabinet, “the cooperation between Star Group and us is indeed being fulfilled.”
“At first, we were all unsure about this project; we just saw it as an experiment where we didn’t have to worry about funding.” Victor took a USB drive from a hidden safe and plugged it into the computer at his workstation in the lab. “Star Group also covered all the costs of our research and development process as promised, even though there was no progress for quite some time.”
“But just the day before we gave up,” the files on the computer scrolled slowly as Victor narrated, finally stopping at a strange structural formula, “that day I completely handed the experiment over to Jackard, who followed the same steps and obtained this product that we had never seen before.”
Lin Yehuan was a little confused and couldn't help but ask, "What about Jackard?"
“He’s dead.” Victor’s tone was eerily calm, without the slightest emotional fluctuation. He didn’t even look away from the screen, as if he were talking about something as mundane as “when you’re hungry, you eat.” “He was extremely excited at the time and immediately carried out the next experiment and used the finished product for an animal experiment.”
"As he expected, there were no side effects."
"He disappeared that very night after handing the data to Lin Yu."
Although Lin Yehuan was well aware that villains would inevitably rebel without any regard for the law, he still couldn't understand this messed-up logic. Without understanding the reaction mechanism, with only this one accidental success and without fully mastering the technology, how could Xingchen Group so easily kill the only scientist who could produce results?
Even if villains inevitably have some unspeakable intellectual limitations, why were Victor and Gu De unaffected?
Lu Xingzhi seemed to have thought of this as well. Compared to Lin Yehuan's caution, he chose to ask in the most direct and unpleasant way, without any euphemism.
"Why are you two completely unharmed?"
"You must be wondering why the two of us weren't threatened..."
Victor's words collided with his own, and he remembered that there was an "acquaintance" here. He nodded to Lu Xingzhi and continued, "That's right, if nothing unexpected happens, we should be in prison right now."
Lin Yehuan was slightly shocked. A hundred different scenarios of Frankenstein's monsters fighting back flashed through his mind. Could it be that they survived not because Star Group had a change of heart, but because of their magical clashes?
“Don’t overthink it, Lin.” Victor seemed to be able to read minds, able to sense a person’s emotions even without any eye contact. “We received a notification from the police early the morning after he was murdered.”
"Lin Yu was the first to discover the crime scene, and they suspect that we orchestrated the murder in order to obtain the data."
"And then?" Lin Yehuan felt like he was listening to a suspense story, completely forgetting about things like drug data.
“The police searched us in accordance with the law,” Victor said in his usual calm tone. “After they left…”
In contrast, Gu De felt greatly humiliated just hearing the story again. He paced back and forth anxiously, finally resting his hand on the window and continuing Victor's story.
"After they left, we demonstrated the experiment again to the people from the Star Group in person."
"The result was unexpected; the experimental animals died on the spot after being injected with the drug."
"Why?" Lin Yehuan was so excited by the amazing twist that he almost stood up and shouted the question.
“Because…” Gu De seemed somewhat guilty, and his voice lowered, “I didn’t expel the air.”
…………
Everyone fell silent again. Seeing that Victor had no intention of continuing, Gu De continued his story.
“From that moment on, I knew,” he paused for a few seconds, still lost in his memories, as he unfolded all his thoughts with emotion, “that they didn’t understand anything at all, and that all they had to do was submit a few flawed reports of data to maintain our cooperation.”
"I will neither become the next Jackard by helping them achieve their goals, nor will I lose this long-term and stable source of funding."
“But you’ve really gone too far!” Victor was still fixated on the document that could only fool laymen.
“I didn’t do that. Why would I waste my time on such garbage?” Gu De met Victor’s condemning gaze. “It only costs three hundred dollars. The guards can do this job for us. How can you blame me for the mistake?”
"We're doomed once they find out."
"But the truth is, none of them noticed."
Seeing that the two of them, who had been at each other's throats, had inexplicably started to become ambiguous again, Lin Yehuan wondered what exactly was going on. But if things continued like this, the day they completed their mission would probably be close to the day they got married. Her mind raced, and she pinched Lu Xingzhi's arm through his clothes.
“Hmm…” Lu Xingzhi stared at her with wide eyes.
Having a low sanity level is great, you can do and say whatever you want without any worries.
Seeing that the atmosphere across from him had returned to normal, Lin Yehuan breathed a long sigh of relief, blinked his innocent big eyes, and forced a smile.
"So, the drug developed by Jackard is indeed effective?" Lin Yehuan turned back and finally asked the question he had been waiting for.
“Of course,” Victor instantly returned to work mode, pulling up a densely packed form filled with data they couldn’t understand, “After controlling the variables multiple times, we finally reproduced his experimental results.”
"Including but not limited to starting to have religious beliefs after 27.3 years of life, having coffee and eggs for breakfast every day, cutting his hair unevenly, and..." Victor recounted the efforts he made to recreate the state of Jackard conducting experiments, piecing together the image of his old friend bit by bit.
"And in order to recreate his height, he did the splits as part of an experiment."
Gu De laughed, raising one eyebrow, and couldn't help but tease, "Thank goodness, I achieved results before I became a ballerina, otherwise we would have had to cut off 4.57 centimeters of our own fingers to restore his delicate little hands."
Victor quickly interrupted, denying his last statement, "No, no, no, only you can try this step. My hands are longer than his, which makes a big difference."
Victor casually glanced at the empty workstation on the far right, which had been covered in dust for a long time, and remarked, "The sun is shining brightly today."
“Yes,” Gu De also looked over, the scattered sunlight falling on his face, forcing him to squint. “If that guy were still here, my eyes would suffer much less.”
Victor's feelings were complicated. His mood, which had just been low, was stirred up again by Victor's words. He agreed, "Yes, compared to his height, his upper body is really long."
Lin Yehuan was engrossed in the story again, his sense of humor and his ability to cry were clashing wildly. His lips moved twice, but he didn't know what to say, so he swallowed his words back.
"Now that the emotional appeal is over, can we get back to the main topic?"
Lu Xingzhi broke the atmosphere with his righteous words, and once again felt Victor's "get out" look.
Lin Yehuan secretly wiped away her sweat, brought up the system page, and tried to find a way to restore her sanity. Although Lu Xingzhi was currently the most effective plot booster, she was still worried that if things continued like this, they would be kicked out.
After searching the system shop, Lin Yehuan exchanged for several bottles of "Wake Up" sanity potions to restore his sanity to its previous value. Fortunately, this potion only cost 1 gold coin to exchange, so she didn't have to worry about any serious consequences.
Returning to the repair page, Lin Yehuan noticed that the system had sped up at some point, and the repair progress was now 50%. He needed to hurry, Lin Yehuan thought. If the repair continued to accelerate like this, the sci-fi version of Painted Skin might be about to unfold before he even finished the task.
Victor then launched into a long explanation of how they researched the results, how they adjusted the dosage step by step in the experiment, and presented them with a series of incomprehensible data reports.
"In clinical trials, our product has not shown any side effects for three consecutive years."
"I think you should understand the value of this."
Lin Yehuan frowned and squinted, pretending to be deep in thought, but in reality, he had no idea how to be sure that she was telling the truth, so he could only secretly tug at Lu Xingzhi's hand for help.
Lu Xingzhi understood immediately and quietly read aloud the meaning of the large amount of data on the report, as if talking to himself.
Lin Yehuan quickly took notes and reviewed all the documents, proving that Victor had indeed not lied.
"This wasn't done by the guards either, was it?" Lin Yehuan glanced meaningfully at Gu De a few times.
Victor did not respond directly, but instead led them to a large machine, turned on the display screen, and pulled out files that had been saved several years ago.
“These results are obtained directly from the instrument’s analysis. He has no chance to make any modifications. You know, machines don’t lie.”
Lin Yehuan looked into her familiar eyes and nodded, accepting the explanation. The group then naturally began to discuss the issue of cooperation.
"Our requirements are very simple."
"One hundred million US dollars."
"This is a sure-fire way for you to make money."
Lin Yehuan stood frozen to the side, then tapped Lu Xingzhi's arm again and asked in Chinese, "Uncle, you really won't invest?"
“Not a single cent.” Lu Xingzhi said, perfectly mimicking Lu Buxiu’s tone, “To be precise, I still owe him…”
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