Chapter 685: Chapter 684: Not an Easy Thing

From what the pot-bellied man said, Yan Feifan learned that Mao Xiang, who held a grudge against him and Dr. Qiu, had copied his roommate Wang Tao’s fingerprint with glue while he was asleep. This allowed him to easily get into the lab.

The man was actually quite clever. He had even done a crash course on some targeted hacking techniques.

He hacked into the computer connected to the lab’s surveillance cameras, erased the footage of himself swapping the lab mice, and replaced it with footage from the same time the previous day.

However, to a professional hacker, his handiwork was as conspicuous as a bonfire in the dead of night.

After confirming the specific time of the crime, the investigators pulled the surveillance footage from within the neurosurgery building and several other nearby locations from the same time period. They quickly identified Mao Xiang as the suspect.

Once the police brought him in, he confessed to everything.

As for the "important discovery" the pot-bellied man had mentioned, Li Yun, his contact, came to see Yan Feifan in person early the next morning to give him an update.

"Mr. Yan, after an overnight operation, we successfully arrested a total of nine spies, led by Fukui Kenichi and Shi Qiaohui."

"The lab mice and the spy case?" Yan Feifan was a little surprised.

Li Yun hummed in affirmation, his voice tinged with excitement. "The main objective of their cell was to spy on and collect our country’s technological R&D achievements, as well as political, economic, and military intelligence."

"Their primary focus was the latest scientific research."

"Mao Xiang sold the two lab mice to a so-called friend for two hundred thousand yuan."

"We followed the trail, which eventually led us to Shi Qiaohui."

"This person from Japan was already on our watchlist, but we had never found anything suspicious about her."

"Using this lead, we took decisive action last night."

"At her residence, we found a good deal of professional equipment, as well as some stolen data."

"It’s just that..."

Li Yun said with great regret, "According to their confession, the two lab mice have already been sent to Japan."

"Mr. Yan, is this a big problem?"

Yan Feifan said thoughtfully, "Two lab mice on their own won’t do them much good."

"The real question is how much they know about our research project."

Li Yun explained, "Based on our preliminary interrogation, they received instructions a month ago to focus on collecting information on you, Mr. Yan."

Yan Feifan mused, "A month ago? That’s about when I got back from my trip to the United States."

Li Yun explained, "The Japanese always follow their American daddy’s lead. Your trip to the United States must have put you on their radar."

"Or perhaps, they were actually acting on orders from the Americans."

"Mr. Yan, we’ll brief you again once we have more information from further interrogation."

Yan Feifan grunted in acknowledgment, then saw Li Yun bow slightly and say, "Mr. Yan, I acted on my own authority yesterday."

"The standard for what constitutes ’urgent and important’ isn’t for a contact person like me to decide. It’s for you, Mr. Yan, to judge."

"My superiors specifically instructed me that from now on, anything concerning you must be reported immediately."

Yan Feifan chuckled. "I hope I never have to dial that number again."

"I hope so too!"

Li Yun agreed, then changed the subject. "Regarding Berry Hackman, the initial information from our American colleagues indicates her background is clean. No issues."

"However, we still need more time to dig deeper into her situation."

"Mr. Yan, please be extra careful during this time."

Yan Feifan nodded, indicating that he understood...

After seeing Li Yun off, Yan Feifan told his curious sister and Su Ye that the investigation had confirmed Mao Xiang acted alone and that Xv Jiande from Jingcheng was not involved.

As for the part about the spies, Yan Feifan kept that to himself.

Yan Ziruo said, a little disappointed, "What a shame. I was hoping we could nail them for their crimes and finally be done with this trouble."

"Feifan, so what’s the next step?"

Yan Feifan thought for a moment and said, "The handling of this matter can go through the legal system. We don’t need to worry about it anymore."

"As for the research project, we’ll continue to move forward steadily!"

"This evening, we’ll dissect two of the lab mice, keep two for further observation, and then run the brainstem stimulation experiment on a new batch."

"Dr. Qiu said that six rhesus monkeys for the experiments will be delivered tomorrow."

Yan Feifan explained, "Given the major problems with Xv Jiande’s experiment, we can’t afford to rush ahead."

"We can’t skip any steps in the animal trials."

Yan Ziruo asked curiously, "Feifan, are these lab monkeys expensive?"

Yu Suye answered for Yan Feifan, "Ziruo, they’re not cheap at all. Two or three years ago, an adult lab monkey cost six or seven thousand yuan each."

"In recent years, animal protection organizations all over the world have been making a huge fuss, so the price of lab monkeys has skyrocketed. Now they’re over ten thousand yuan each."

Yan Ziruo let out a soft "Oh," and said, "One monkey costs as much as my monthly salary. That really isn’t cheap."

"It’s just that using such cute monkeys for experiments, only to have them be euthanized in the end, seems a bit too cruel."

"Feifan, can’t you just use lab mice?"

Yan Feifan shot his sister a look and said, "Monkeys are much more similar to us humans."

"Besides, a lab mouse is a life too. Don’t you feel bad for them?"

Yan Ziruo huffed, "Not one bit. You can kill as many lab mice as you want in your experiments, and I still won’t feel bad."

"Sis, you have a classic double standard!"

Yan Feifan teased his sister, just as Duan Yu’s voice came from the kitchen, "Breakfast is ready!"...

While eating breakfast in the dining room, Yan Ziruo, Yu Suye, and Duan Yu naturally started talking about last night’s dinner party.

Duan Yu sighed softly. "It’s infuriating when you start comparing people!"

"You have two chefs, and one makes food so good you could swallow your tongue. Then you have that guy Xiao Lei, whose cooking is just abysmal in comparison."

"That’s the difference talent makes."

Yu Suye glanced at Yan Feifan, who was eating, and said with a light laugh, "Duan Yu, if we young doctors really compared ourselves to Feifan, we’d all have to line up on the rooftop to jump off."

Duan Yu nodded and said, "Growing up, we were taught that diligence can make up for a lack of talent, that where there’s a will there’s a way, and that nothing is impossible with hard work."

"But then you grow up and realize..."

"...some gaps can’t be closed by hard work, no matter how hard you try."

Yan Feifan swallowed the food in his mouth and said, "Talent determines a person’s ceiling, but hard work determines their floor."

"In real life, the vast majority of people haven’t even worked hard enough to reach the point where talent becomes the deciding factor. It’s mostly just a lack of effort."

"What about you, then?" Duan Yu asked curiously.

Yan Feifan said with a smug look, "I am both talented and hardworking, far beyond the reach of mere mortals like you."

Tch...

Yan Feifan was immediately treated to three pairs of rolling eyes.

Yan Ziruo snatched the peeled hard-boiled egg from her brother and warned, "Feifan, don’t say I didn’t warn you..."

"Last night, those students of yours were all falling over themselves to impress that Berry, which made a group of the young nurses very unhappy."

"If you don’t handle this Berry situation, your team is going to become a total mess."

Yan Feifan rolled his eyes. "How am I supposed to handle something like that? It’s just men and women being attracted to each other. You can’t manage that."

He snorted coldly and added, "They just have too much free time and too much energy. If they were so tired they passed out the moment their heads hit the pillow, they wouldn’t have time for these extra thoughts."

"I’ll let them have it easy for a few more days. Once I’m done with what I’m busy with, they’ll find out..."

"...that being my student is no easy task..."

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