Chapter 47 Chen Xueming's Past

At nine o'clock in the evening, the lights were on in Fang Lin's office.

Lin Mo sat opposite her, with a cup of tea that had long gone cold in front of him. Outside the window, the night was thick, and the shadows of the distant mountains were faint and elusive.

Fang Lin took a kraft paper file folder out of her drawer and placed it on the desk.

"Chen Xueming's materials," she said. "Everything you want to know is inside."

Lin Mo took the file folder, but instead of opening it immediately, he looked at Fang Lin.

"Director Fang, you had this prepared a long time ago?"

Fang Lin nodded. "From the day you agreed to the review, I had someone re-examine his background."

Lin Mo opened the file folder and pulled out the documents inside.

The first page was his basic information: Chen Xueming, male, 35 years old, professor at the School of Materials Science at Jianghuai University, PhD from Stanford...

It was the same as what he had seen before.

Turning to the second page, the content began to become detailed.

Stanford University, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, enrolled in 2012, graduated with a PhD in 2015. Advisor: Professor Robert Stanley, Nobel Laureate in Physics. During his PhD, he published 11 papers, including 3 as first author in Nature, 2 in Science, and 1 in Nature Materials.

Lin Mo's fingers paused on these numbers.

3 in Nature, 2 in Science. For a person to publish so many top-tier journals during their PhD, it was simply monster-level existence.

He raised his head and looked at Fang Lin.

Fang Lin seemed to see through his question and nodded. "Yes, he was the most dazzling student in the Stanford materials department during those years. Professor Stanley called him a 'talent seen once in a decade'."

Lin Mo continued reading.

2015 to 2017, postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Berkeley, with co-advisor Professor Steven Chen, an international authority in the field of Lithium-Sulfur Battery. During his postdoc, he continued to publish high-level papers, including 1 in Nature Energy and 2 in Joule.

At the end of 2017, he was selected for the national high-level overseas talent recruitment program and returned to China in early 2018.

Lin Mo noticed that starting from 2018, the number of papers published by Chen Xueming dropped sharply.

2018, 1 paper, second author.

2019, 0 papers.

2020, 1 paper, third author.

2021, 2 papers, but both were co-corresponding, and the impact factors were far from what they used to be.

"What happened to him after he returned to China?" Lin Mo asked.

Fang Lin did not answer directly but asked in return, "Do you know how long he stayed in the United States?"

Lin Mo thought for a moment. "If we don't count undergraduate, PhD plus postdoc, five years?"

"Six years," Fang Lin said. "In those six years, he published over a dozen top-tier papers and was the most outstanding among all Chinese students. But do you know how he spent those six years?"

Lin Mo shook his head.

Fang Lin stood up and walked to the window.

"His advisor, Professor Stanley, is a typical old-school American scientist, extremely strict academically and extremely cold in life. He is the same to everyone, regardless of nationality or race. Under him, Chen Xueming got used to this pure academic environment—only looking at papers, not at personal relationships."

She turned around and looked at Lin Mo. "But outside the laboratory, it's not like that."

Lin Mo listened quietly.

"In the Stanford materials department those years, there were several large research teams. The head of one of the teams was Professor Stanley's competitor. That person was not very friendly to Chinese scholars, and the students under him didn't really associate with Chen Xueming."

Fang Lin paused. "The more papers Chen Xueming published at the time, the more that team ostracized him. At academic conferences, his reports were deliberately nitpicked; in collaborative projects, his name was inexplicably removed; once, even one of his paper submissions was inexplicably rejected, and later he found out that one of the reviewers was a member of that team."

Lin Mo frowned.

"He didn't know?"

"He knew," Fang Lin said. "But he didn't care. He felt that as long as the papers were solid and the data was true, those were just minor matters."

Lin Mo was silent for a few seconds, then asked, "And then what happened?"

Fang Lin returned to her seat and took a sip of tea.

"Later, he returned to China," she said. "Before he returned, Professor Stanley had a talk with him. He urged him to stay in the United States, saying there was a better platform, more resources, and a fairer environment there."

She looked at Lin Mo. "Do you know how he answered?"

Lin Mo shook his head.

"He said he is Chinese and wants to come back to do things for his own country."

Fang Lin's voice was very calm, but Lin Mo could hear what was beneath that calmness—it was respect, and also regret.

"The first year he returned to China, he went to a certain institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences," Fang Lin continued. "The institute valued him highly and gave him the best laboratory and the most funding. But problems soon arose."

"What problems?"

"He didn't fit in," Fang Lin said. "During a meeting of the institute's academic committee, he pointed out on the spot that an old professor's data was problematic. The old professor was embarrassed, and the others looked at each other in dismay. After the meeting, the director of the office talked to him, asking him to pay attention to his methods in the future. He said, 'Pay attention to what methods? If the data is wrong, it's wrong.'"

Lin Mo remembered what Zhang Zhe had said.

"Later, that old professor's project was investigated?" he asked.

Fang Lin nodded. "Yes. Chen Xueming wrote a whistleblower letter and reported the matter to the academy. The academy investigated, and the old professor indeed had problems and had his project revoked. But Chen Xueming couldn't stay there anymore either."

She sighed. "After that, no one dared to collaborate with him. Everyone knew he was capable, but they also knew he was someone you couldn't afford to offend. After eight months, he resigned."

Lin Mo was silent.

"The second stop was a certain 985 university," Fang Lin continued. "This time he learned to be obedient, didn't meddle in other people's business, and only did his own research. But a year later, he left again."

"Because the dean wanted him to lend his name?" Lin Mo asked.

Fang Lin glanced at him. "Zhang Zhe told you that?"

Lin Mo nodded.

Fang Lin smiled. "Zhang Zhe really understands him."

She continued, "After that time, Chen Xueming was completely disheartened. He didn't understand why he just wanted to do research properly, yet he kept hitting walls everywhere. He thought he could fully display his talents after returning to China, but he discovered that the hardest part wasn't the scientific research itself, but the people."

Lin Mo was silent.

He remembered Chen Xueming's sharp gaze at the meeting. That wasn't arrogance; it was something deeper—it was a longing to be seen, mixed with the defensiveness that comes after disappointment.

"The third stop was Jianghuai University," Fang Lin said. "The president personally intervened and told him, 'You just focus on your research, don't worry about anything else. I will handle personnel matters.'"

She looked at Lin Mo. "So he stayed at Jianghuai University for three years. In those three years, he didn't meddle in other people's business again, didn't offend anyone again, but he didn't produce any decent results either."

Lin Mo looked at the diminishing number of papers on the document, year by year, and nodded.

"He locked himself away," he said.

Fang Lin nodded. "Yes. A person who shuts himself in the laboratory, doesn't communicate with others, and doesn't participate in academic activities. He knew he wasn't welcome, so he simply stopped going out."

She paused. "But the fire in his heart never went out. That's why he came to participate in this review, and why he questioned you so sharply."

Lin Mo raised his head and looked at her.

"Director Fang, are you telling me all this because you want me to understand him?"

Fang Lin smiled.

"Lin Mo," she said. "You are the Chief. You need to use the people on your team, and you also need to understand them. This man, Chen Xueming, has talent, but he also has emotional knots. If you want him to come, you must first know why he became the way he is now."

She stood up and walked over to Lin Mo.

"What he lacks is not ability, but trust. He lacks a place where he can do research with peace of mind, without having to guard against anyone, without having to calculate anything."

She looked into Lin Mo's eyes. "Can you give him that?"

Lin Mo was silent for a long time.

Then he nodded.

"I can."

Fang Lin smiled and patted his shoulder.

"That's good."

Lin Mo stood up, ready to leave. Walking to the door, he suddenly stopped, turned back, and asked, "Director Fang, how do you know all this?"

Fang Lin paused for a moment, then said, "Because I sent people to investigate."

Lin Mo looked at her, waiting for her to continue.

Fang Lin was silent for a few seconds, then said, "The year Chen Xueming returned to China, I was working at the Science and Technology Security Bureau. The first unit he went to was the one I was responsible for coordinating. I knew about all the ostracism he suffered."

She walked to the window, with her back to Lin Mo.

"At that time, I thought he was too young and would learn to be obedient after suffering some losses. I didn't expect that he would rather leave than learn to be obedient."

She turned around and looked at Lin Mo. "Later I realized, it wasn't that he couldn't learn it, it was that he despised that whole system from the bottom of his heart."

Lin Mo stood there, looking at Fang Lin.

Under the lights, there was a complex expression on her face—it was guilt, and also relief.

"Director Fang," Lin Mo said, "after he comes, I will treat him well."

Fang Lin looked at him and smiled.

"I know."

Lin Mo walked out of the office and walked through the empty corridor.

The night outside the window was deep, and the moonlight spilled onto the mountain ridge like a layer of silver frost.

He remembered Chen Xueming's sharp eyes, remembered the bitter smile when he said "I lost," and remembered his words before leaving, "I will come back."

That person was not an enemy.

He was a kindred spirit.