The development of a new drug required a lot of manpower, material resources, financial resources and space. It would be nigh impossible for the rich lady to do it secretly, so she had to hide the tree in a forest and set up a cover project where she could obtain the resources she needed.
“That makes a lot of sense,” remarked Xiaotao after listening to my theory. “Why did she decide to lead us to this document, then?”
“Is it possible for us to trace back more information about this project?” I asked Director Wang.
“I’ll ask the HR department,” he replied.
Xiaotao suggested we go out and grab lunch now since it was probably going to be another long day of work ahead of us. During the meal, Dali pulled out a small notebook of English terms and phrases and began to memorize them.
“What an industrious student!” Xiaotao laughed and teased him.
“I’ve failed this exam multiple times, Xiaotao-jiejie!” Dali pouted. “I’ve got to work hard if I want to graduate!”
Xiaotao turned to me and asked, “What about you, Song Yang? Got good grades?”
“They’re just average,” I replied. “I’ll be happy if I pass all the exams.”
We went on to chat happily for a while, but at one point Xiaotao suddenly turned listless and unhappy. I asked her if something was troubling her and she replied with a simple “Yeah.” I asked if it had something to do with Wang Gongzi and she was surprised.
“How did you know?” she asked. “Are you the tapeworm that lives inside my stomach?”
I laughed. “You sighed heavily when that young couple entered the restaurant, so I guessed it might have something to do with this.”
“Amazing deduction, Detective Song!” she praised. “You can even read other people’s minds! At this rate you’ll surpass Sherlock Holmes soon!”
“I’ve still got a long way to go,” I humbly replied.
It turned out that after meeting Xiaotao at that party, Wang Gongzi was completely smitten with her beauty and her sexy figure and began to call her non-stop to ask her out for dinner. Last night, he even turned up near her apartment and pestered her about going on a date together, but Xiaotao kept insisting that she was not interested. After a while, the man finally relented and went home.
Because her father had set his eyes on Wang Gongzi to be his future son-in-law and the economic relationship between the two families, Xiaotao had to be careful not to offend Wang Gongzi too much. However, that only served to embolden him and made him even more annoying.
“Holy shit, Xiaotao-jiejie!” cried Dali. “I never thought arranged marriages would still be a thing in this day and age! This is simply feudalistic!”
Xiaotao sighed. “My family has always been very strict with rules. I can’t just marry anyone without my father’s consent. That’s why I’ve been troubled about this for days. I even had the idea that if my father forces me to marry this guy, I’d cheat on him just to embarrass my father!”
“You’re not serious, are you?” I asked.
Xiaotao laughed. “Would you like to join me in my plan to get back at my father?”
“I’m afraid I’m not very good at climbing down windows…”
“Here I am… Just being the third wheel again…” complained Dali.
We laughed and joked, but it was obvious that Xiaotao was still troubled by the matter, so I asked her, “Do you have any feelings for the guy?”
Xiaotao screwed up her face and replied, “Sure! Hatred! Disgust! Those are feelings too, right? Ugh, it’s like we don’t even speak the same language! We basically live on different planets!”
“Why don’t you sit down with him and spell it out clearly to him that there’s no chance you two are going to work?” I suggested. “Maybe that would discourage him. If that doesn’t work, then I can act as your boyfriend.”
“Yeah, about that,” said Xiaotao. “I don’t think your act was very convincing the other day.”
“I’m not that experienced in this matter, so…” I smiled wanly.
“Maybe we should practice going out together more so we’d look more convincing as a pair. Then perhaps that guy would just give it up.”
I noticed that Dali’s expressions turned sour again, so I just answered her briefly, “Okay!”
We returned to the lady’s company after lunch. Director Wang had been waiting for us at the front desk. The moment we arrived, he sprung up to his feet and announced that he’d made a major discovery. Through the HR department, he found out that the lab used in the development of the drug was located in a warehouse in the south of the city, and the rich lady was the owner of that property.
This was undoubtedly a major breakthrough. Xiaotao called Yuanchao to tell him to bring a few special police officers there and rush there, and we immediately set off.
We came to the south of the city where we found the warehouse on private land. The rich lady had bought three warehouses here. We tried to enter the largest one, but the gates were locked with iron chains. I picked the lock with an iron wire that I brought with me, then Yuanchao shoved the doors open.
It was pitch-black inside. We tried to find the light switches but they were nowhere to be found. The air inside was arctic cold. I activated my Cave Vision and scanned the whole building. Dali followed close behind me, his hands tugging at the sleeves of my shirt like a child. Xiaotao walked behind Dali.
I saw some wooden crates stacked in a corner. We walked further into the building and came to a separate room. One of the walls was made of glass, and through it I could see long tables inside where multiple lab equipment were placed on top. As I entered the room, I saw a document on the table. I picked it up and read it.
“I see… I see!” I mumbled as I read.
“We’re dying of suspense here, Song Yang!” Xiaotao interjected. “Tell us what you see!”
“The fake death medicine was developed to be used with the freezer—its purpose is to put people into deep hibernation!”
“Whoa!” exclaimed Dali. “Sounds like something straight out of a sci-fi movie!”
“It’s not that advanced, to be honest, “ I said. “In fact, there have been advances in cryogenics for many years now. There are cases of people with terminal illnesses who were frozen before their death so they could be thawed and ‘reawakened’ when medical advances improved in the future. It’s the closest thing we have to immortality. The rich lady was trying to develop a drug that could be injected into a body that would reduce its activity to the level of a hibernating bear, which is almost equivalent to the state of death, so that the body can be stored cryogenically for hundreds, or maybe even thousands of years!”
“But that kind of research would benefit the whole of mankind!” cried Xiaotao. “Why did she go to so much trouble to keep it a secret?”
“Perhaps she was looking to be the pioneer of the technology to monopolize it and make herself a fortune,” I explained.
“Nothing scares rich people more than death,” Xiaotao muttered gloomily. “If they find out that there’s technology that can extend their lives indefinitely, they’d be willing to spend a fortune to get their hands on it!”
“And maybe decades from now,” said Dali, “rich people will be able to live forever while the poor have to eke out a living…”
“There’s no need to be so pessimistic,” Xiaotao patted Dali’s shoulder. “Perhaps, by the time this technology becomes popular, you’d be a rich man yourself!”
At that instant, there was a loud noise outside. Dali shrieked in fear and hid behind my back.
“How do you find me so quickly without being able to see in the dark?” I joked.
Xiaotao clasped at her chest and said, “Seriously, I was more alarmed by your scream than by that noise! You should really consider becoming an opera singer with that voice!”
“I’m sorry,” Dali blushed in shame. “It was an automatic response!”
I slowly led Xiaotao and Dali out of the laboratory. I found that there was a rustling movement from behind the wooden crates. I told Xiaotao and Dali to wait for me while I checked them out. I climbed onto the pile of crates to see what was hiding behind it. Suddenly, a hand emerged and it grabbed my ankle tightly. My heart nearly jumped out of my throat!
I looked down with dread and saw a zombie-like man breaking open one of the crates slowly climbing out. He was naked and completely emaciated. His skin had no lustre to it at all. The only sign that he was alive was the light that reflected off his eyes.
I shouted Xiaotao’s name, then she ran towards me with Dali following behind her. They turned on the flashlight on their mobile phones so they could see what was going on. When Dali saw the ‘zombie,’ he once again screamed his lungs out. Xiaotao kicked his butt and yelled, “What are you, a canary? Do you have to scream every time you sense danger?”
I thought that nickname fit Dali nicely, but it was not the time to be joking around. I asked Dali to help me lift this person up. We carried him to the open space in the middle of the room. The man struggled to lie down because all his joints were stiff, and he tried to speak but realized that he’d lost his voice.
“How did he end up this way?” asked Xiaotao
I quickly examined his body and replied, “He’s been injected with a large dose of the hibernation drug which caused his whole body to deteriorate, but it stopped short of killing him.”
At that moment, the man’s eyes began to glisten, yet no tears would flow from them because his body was too dehydrated. It was truly a gut-wrenching sight to see.