168: Chapter 168 Zhou Zheng, why are you running? I'm not going to hit you!

Jiangcheng western suburbs, a homestay.

A dilapidated three-story building hidden deep in an alley, its outer wall plastered with faded "50 per day" advertisements.

Instructor Lei Zhan leaned against a utility pole at the alley entrance, chewing on an unlit cigarette. His phone buzzed.

A message from Lin Fan.

[Are you there yet?]

[Why are you rushing me? I have been squatting at the alley entrance for half an hour, the mosquitoes have bitten me seventeen times.]

[A Level 6 Martial Saint getting bitten by mosquitoes?]

[...If you keep talking nonsense, I will let the person go.]

Lin Fan put his phone away and glanced at Li Youwei beside him.

They had hailed a taxi after leaving the hospital. Li Youwei hadn't spoken much along the way, occasionally lowering her head to swipe on her tablet, pulling up data.

Now, she tucked the tablet into her bag and straightened the collar of her trench coat.

Lin Fan swept a glance at her.

He had to admit, this girl was quite a looker.

Her face had a cold edge, her chin line was sharp, and her skin was excessively pale. Paired with that cinched black trench coat, her waist was so thin it could be circled with one hand.

But what caught Lin Fan's attention most was her temperament.

It wasn't the carefree kind, nor the soft sweetness of Xia Wanqiu, but a very restrained, cold sense of distance.

It was just... well, it was the kind where you look at her and feel she is very cold, but when she speaks, she is very direct, without any beating around the bush.

"Have you seen enough?" Li Youwei turned her head slightly.

"No," Lin Fan retracted his gaze, "I was wondering what you are wearing under your trench coat."

"..."

"Just kidding, let's go."

Lin Fan quickened his pace into the alley.

Li Youwei followed, her mouth twitching slightly, not taking the bait.

At the corner of the alley, Instructor Lei Zhan stood in the shadows. Seeing Lin Fan approach, he took the unlit cigarette from his mouth and stuffed it into his pocket.

"The room at the very end of the third floor. The door is unlocked. He is inside packing things alone, looks like he is preparing to run away."

"Does he have any Awakened abilities?"

"No, just an ordinary person," Instructor Lei Zhan glanced at Li Youwei behind Lin Fan, "Who is this?"

"A partner."

"Since when do you have a partner?"

"Ten minutes ago."

Instructor Lei Zhan didn't ask further and turned to lead the way.

The three of them went up the stairs; the wooden floorboards creaked as they stepped on them.

Arriving at the end of the third-floor corridor, Instructor Lei Zhan pointed to the door at the very end.

Light leaked through the crack in the door, and there was a rustling sound of things being rummaged through inside.

Lin Fan didn't knock.

He lifted his leg and kicked the door open.

"Bang!"

The door panel hit the wall and bounced back, only to be caught by Lin Fan.

Inside the room, a man in his forties was squatting on the floor stuffing clothes into a suitcase. Startled by the kick, he jumped up, and the shirt in his hand fell to the floor.

Attending Physician Zhou Zheng.

Jiangcheng No. 3 Peoples Hospital, Lin Yue's attending physician.

At this moment, his face was pale, his forehead covered in sweat. The moment he saw Lin Fan, his lips trembled.

"Lin... Lin Fan?"

"Attending Physician Zhou Zheng," Lin Fan walked in and closed the door behind him, a smile on his face, "What are you running for? Packing luggage in the middle of the night, going on a trip?"

Attending Physician Zhou Zheng took a step back, his back hitting the windowsill.

"I... I am not running, I am... I have an emergency..."

"An emergency," Lin Fan nodded, pulled over the only chair in the room, sat down in front of Attending Physician Zhou Zheng, and crossed his legs, "Then let's talk quickly, I have an emergency too."

Instructor Lei Zhan leaned against the door frame, arms crossed.

Li Youwei took a palm-sized silver instrument from her bag and placed it on the table without a word.

Attending Physician Zhou Zheng's gaze darted between the three of them, his Adam's apple bobbing several times.

"What did you inject into my sister this afternoon?"

Lin Fan's tone was flat, but the temperature in the room dropped several degrees.

"It was just... just a routine blood recheck..."

"A routine recheck using vein-locking serum?"

Attending Physician Zhou Zheng's face fell instantly.

These three words shattered his last bit of wishful thinking.

"You... how do you know..."

"Attending Physician Zhou Zheng," Lin Fan leaned forward, resting his hands on his knees, "I have a characteristic."

"When others hit me, I don't get angry, I am even quite happy."

"But for those who touch my sister, I will make sure they cannot be happy."

Attending Physician Zhou Zheng's legs began to shake.

"It's not... it's not that I wanted to inject it... they made me..."

"Who?"

"Tianlong Pharmaceutical... people from Tianlong Pharmaceutical..."

"Who gave you the order? Name."

"Director Gu Qing, Director Gu Qing of the R&D department," Attending Physician Zhou Zheng's voice was trembling, "He contacted me three days ago, gave me that injection, and told me to find an opportunity to inject it... said it was to accelerate the worsening of the condition so you would come to them for the second batch of medicine..."

Lin Fan didn't move.

"Do you know the effects of the vein-locking serum?"

"I... I know part of it... it causes the meridians to contract and accelerate..."

"You knew, and you still dared to inject it into a fifteen-year-old girl?"

Attending Physician Zhou Zheng opened his mouth but couldn't speak.

Lin Fan stood up.

The chair slid back half a meter.

"How long have you been collaborating with Tianlong Pharmaceutical?"

"Three... three years..."

"In these three years, the medicine you prescribed for Lin Yue, was there a problem with that too?"

Attending Physician Zhou Zheng lowered his head without denying it.

"They gave me money... fifty thousand per month... told me to medicate your sister according to their plan, saying it was maintenance therapy, but in reality..."

"In reality, it was to control the condition, keeping her neither good nor bad, just enough to stay alive, but never getting better," Li Youwei interjected, her voice cold, "Right?"

Attending Physician Zhou Zheng nodded.

Lin Fan took a deep breath.

He didn't hit him.

Not because he didn't want to, but because he was afraid that with one punch, an ordinary person like Attending Physician Zhou Zheng would be gone.

"Your sister's medical records, prescriptions, the contact information Tianlong Pharmaceutical gave you, hand it all over."

"I... I have it all on my phone..."

"Give me the phone."

Attending Physician Zhou Zheng tremblingly took out his phone and handed it over.

Lin Fan took it and threw it to Li Youwei.

Li Youwei caught it, took out a data cable, connected it to her tablet, and her fingers moved rapidly.

"Communication records, transfer records, prescription archives, all here," she looked for ten seconds, "What he said is basically true, but there is one hidden encrypted call record, I need a few minutes to decrypt it."

Lin Fan turned back to look at Attending Physician Zhou Zheng.

"On the Tianlong Pharmaceutical side, besides Director Gu Qing, who else have you been in contact with?"

"No... no one else, it was always Director Gu Qing who contacted me directly..."

"You are lying."

Li Youwei looked up and held up the tablet.

"Three months ago, you had a call with an unassigned encrypted number, lasting eleven minutes."

Attending Physician Zhou Zheng's expression changed.

"That... I don't know who that was... he just asked some questions about Lin Yue's physical condition..."

"What questions?"

"Asked about her meridian blockage degree, Awakened potential index, and also... also the uniqueness of her blood components..."

Lin Fan narrowed his eyes.

Blood components.

Tianlong Pharmaceutical wanted his blood.

Now someone else was paying attention to Lin Yue's blood.

"What were the characteristics of that person's voice?"

"Very deep, spoke very slowly, every sentence was very short," Attending Physician Zhou Zheng recalled, "And he mentioned a term..."

"What term?"

"Test subject."

The room was quiet for three seconds.

Lin Fan clenched his fist and then released it.

"He called my sister a test subject?"

Attending Physician Zhou Zheng shook his head frantically, "No... he asked whether the test subject's offspring showed symptoms of meridian blockage..."

The test subject's offspring.

Then the test subject referred to his parents.

Lin Fan turned to look at Li Youwei.

Li Youwei was also looking at him, nodding slightly.

It matched the file she had given him.

Thirty years ago, Northwest Forbidden Zone, human experiments.

His parents were recruited Awakened, experimental subjects.

And Lin Yue's illness was the sequelae left by the experiment.

"Attending Physician Zhou Zheng," Lin Fan squatted down, looking him in the eye, "You have two choices now."

"First, you confess everything you know, including every instruction, every payment, and every prescription Tianlong Pharmaceutical gave you. Then I will hand you over to the Martial Arts Association, you go in for a few years, and you can still live when you come out."

"Second."

Lin Fan paused.

"There is no second."

Attending Physician Zhou Zheng slumped to the floor, "I will tell... I will tell everything..."

For the next twenty minutes, Attending Physician Zhou Zheng spilled everything he knew.

The medication plans for the past three years, every call record with Director Gu Qing, the contact network of Tianlong Pharmaceutical in Jiangcheng, even including that two nurses in the hospital were also helping Tianlong Pharmaceutical.

Li Youwei recorded everything, while using a mental scanner to cross-reference and confirm there were no omissions.

After it was all over, Lin Fan stood up and patted the dust off his pants.

"Instructor Lei Zhan, hand him over to you, send him to the Martial Arts Association."

Instructor Lei Zhan walked over and grabbed Attending Physician Zhou Zheng by the back of his collar.

"Just this? Not beat him up?"

"Beat him? How much Defense can I add by hitting him?" Lin Fan rolled his eyes, "An ordinary person, one punch probably adds Defense + 0.001, not even as good as a mosquito bite, a waste of my time."

Instructor Lei Zhan, "...You are truly sick."

"That is, professional," Lin Fan walked out the door, "Let's go."

Li Youwei packed up her equipment and followed.

The two walked downstairs to the homestay, the night wind blowing, a bit cool.

Lin Fan's phone rang.

A message from Xia Wanqiu.

[Lin Yue has stabilized, my talent energy has recovered some, and I can continue to maintain it. Murong Yan is guarding at the door, no abnormalities.]

[How is it on your side?]

Lin Fan replied.

[Caught the person, interrogated him, big gains.]

[What gains?]

[Wait for me to get back and tell you.]

[Is that woman named Li Youwei still following you?]

Lin Fan stared at this message for two seconds.

Why does this question feel a bit off?

[Yes, she helped a lot.]

There was a five-second delay before the reply came.

[Oh.]

Just one word.

Lin Fan suddenly felt something was wrong.

But he didn't have time to think about it, the phone buzzed again.

Rakshasa.

[Detection results have been refined. The ingredients in the vein-locking serum highly match a type of Awakened gene inhibitor extracted in the Northwest Forbidden Zone thirty years ago.]

[Moreover, the manufacturer of this gene inhibitor has been confirmed.]

[Who is it.]

Rakshasa sent a name.

[Chief Researcher Chen Wuji.]

[The chief researcher of the Northwest Forbidden Zone thirty years ago, Level 8 Martial Emperor, codenamed 'Creator'.]

[In official records, this person died in the Forbidden Zone incident.]

[But my channels show that he might still be alive.]

Lin Fan clutched his phone, standing under a street lamp, motionless.

Level 8 Martial Emperor.

Still alive.

Damn it!

Rakshasa sent another one.

[Brat, what level are you now?]

[Defense 43.]

[Not enough.]

[I know.]

[When are you going to Thunder Prison Volcano?]