Chapter 123

Chapter 123

“Why?” Nan Mu and Wen Miao asked at the same time.

Wen Xin was a little surprised by their synchronicity, but compared to what Xu Ziran had told him, that hardly seemed worth mentioning.

“Because Meng Ran doesn’t seem to be in great health either.”

Wen Xin very much hoped he was just being paranoid, but there were too many facts right in front of him. He couldn’t help but be suspicious. “Xu Ziran said Meng Ran has been in pretty bad shape lately. In the past, Meng Ran was always the last one to leave the lab, but over the past few months, she’s been coming in late and leaving early. That never happened before.”

Coming in late and leaving early was unusual, but it did not necessarily mean she was sick.

Wen Miao thought for a moment. “Could she be planning to jump ship?”

Hearing Wen Miao’s question, Wen Xin couldn’t help laughing. He wanted to pat Wen Miao on the shoulder, but because there was a table between them, his outstretched hand ended up merely patting the air.

“That’s what I thought too.”

After Wen Xin stopped laughing, he continued, “But Xu Ziran said he personally ran into Meng Ran vomiting outside the bathroom. On top of that, he said Meng Ran’s energy has been much worse than before lately. So he thinks Meng Ran is definitely sick.”

So when Xu Ziran saw Team Four openly going to war with Team Two, it made him upset. In a way, wasn’t that because he feared the same fate might befall them? Meng Ran was one of the founding-level figures at Wisdom Biotechnology. Team One worked under her, so naturally they enjoyed preferential treatment and certain conveniences.

But just as Team Four had accumulated a bellyful of resentment while constantly making concessions to Team Two, Team One’s privileges and advantages would naturally make others jealous or infringe upon some people’s interests.

If Meng Ran really ended up taking a long sick leave, then Team One’s situation might not necessarily be much better than Team Two’s.

As Nan Mu listened to Wen Xin speak at length, he suddenly felt a little admiration for him.

No wonder when Qiu Ziyu had gone to A University of Science and Technology to conduct a background check on Wen Xin’s interpersonal relationships, not a single school leader, colleague, or student had anything bad to say about him.

Just look at him. They had both gone to the company for the first time today. Nan Mu had spent his time studying the equipment and the building’s structure. Wen Xin, meanwhile, had not only already blended in with the members of his team, but had also figured out the company’s interpersonal dynamics and gossip.

However, when Nan Mu thought back to everyone’s evaluation of Wen Xin during Qiu Ziyu’s background check…

There had seemed to be one other point: Wen Xin was supposedly rather cold.

Nan Mu looked up at the little chatterbox in front of him and fell into thought. This personality didn’t seem cold at all. Besides, someone like that couldn’t possibly get close to people at a company in a single day.

Perhaps Wen Miao’s death had hit him and Wen Tangtang very hard.

Nan Mu was still thinking when he heard Wen Miao prop her chin up and say, “So after all that, you still haven’t said why you’re using a radiation detector.”

“I explained it so clearly, and you still didn’t get it?” Wen Xin sighed. “Think about it. Just today alone, as far as I know, this company already has…”

Wen Xin thought for a moment. Unable to come up with an exact number right away, he began counting them off on his fingers one by one.

“Meng Ran, Teacher Liu from Team Two… and Jia Lingyuan. Although I’ve never met this person, didn’t you say he had surgery at the beginning of the year? Tell me, is it normal for so many people in one company to suddenly come down with serious illnesses?”

This time, Wen Miao finally understood, and she couldn’t help frowning. “So many people at one company getting sick all at once does seem a little abnormal.”

“Exactly. That’s why I said I wanted to try using a radiation detector. I really suspect that lab of theirs might have excessive radiation levels…”

“It is a little strange, but I don’t think it’s a radiation problem. After all, Jia Lingyuan and Gu Zhishu both had their surgeries a year ago. Logically speaking, if there really had been excessive radiation, how could people who’d had full physical examinations not know about it? Wouldn’t the hospital have issued test reports?” Wen Miao suddenly remembered the matter of physical exams. “Right, aren’t lab researchers already required to get comprehensive physical exams every year? If there were a radiation issue in the lab, it’s impossible that no one would have discovered it by now.”
Wen Xin thought Wen Miao had a point. “So… it really was just a coincidence? A few people just happened to fall ill one after another?”

Wen Miao looked at Nan Mu. “What do you think?”

Nan Mu pondered for a moment. “Maybe this has nothing to do with the radiation, but it might not be completely unrelated either.”

His answer was so vague that Wen Xin did not understand it at all. What did he mean, related and not related?

“What I mean is, this incident may not have anything to do with the radiation, but the illness itself is definitely suspicious… I just don’t know… whether there might be one more person who’s sick.”

“Hm?” Wen Xin asked, puzzled.

Beside him, Wen Miao looked at Nan Mu’s grave expression, and her heart suddenly skipped. She let out a soft, “Ah.”

Wen Xin instinctively shifted his gaze to Wen Miao across from him. “What is it?”

Wen Miao unconsciously tightened her fingers around her glass. “You… don’t suspect that they’re the ones who received the transplants, do you?”

Nan Mu nodded.

Based on what they already knew, Jia Lingyuan and Gu Zhishu were a confirmed pair: donor and recipient.

As for Wen Miao and Xu Lei-though that was not quite accurate-Xu Lei had wanted to kill Wen Miao, most likely for the sake of his wife, Meng Ran. That would also explain why, when Qiu Ziyu had investigated Xu Lei’s records of major surgeries, he found nothing from ten years ago. It was because Xu Lei had indeed never been ill. The one who had been sick was his wife.

And when they had previously looked into Xiao Ai’s background, they learned that after she escaped the mountains, she became a homeless person wandering the streets, with barely enough clothing to cover herself and never enough to eat. In the winter when she nearly froze to death, the kindhearted person she met was also Xu Lei’s wife, Meng Ran.

So there was now a reasonable explanation for why Xu Lei and Nurse Xiao Ai had joined forces, and even why Nurse Xiao Ai had been more desperate than Xu Lei.

As for this Teacher Xu from Team Two, if Nan Mu’s guess was right, he was one of the people currently trying to capture Zhaodi.

After all, Su Yu had already gone missing in May, which meant the transplant recipient must have fallen ill before May.

According to Wen Xin’s description, Team Two had only just broken out into conflict with Team Four. If Teacher Xu had gone on sick leave back in May, then with Team Four’s usual nature, there was no way they would have waited half a year before kicking up a fuss.

So Teacher Xu must have gone on leave only recently. In that case, the person who had captured Su Yu before could not have been him.

And if it was not him, then there had to be another person inside Wisdom Biotech Company who was seriously ill and needed an organ transplant. That person’s illness should also have begun earlier than Teacher Xu’s.

Wen Xin was left stunned by Nan Mu’s analysis.

It was not that he thought Nan Mu was completely wrong. In fact, he even felt Nan Mu’s reasoning made a great deal of sense. At the very least, it was supported by evidence and sounded quite plausible. The problem was, how could there be such a coincidence in this world?

Four people at Wisdom Biotechnology just happened to fall ill, and the organs they needed just happened to come from people at their Orphanage, and all of those people just happened to be people they knew. Wasn’t that too much of a coincidence?

So much of a coincidence that it was absurd. After all, some patients waited their whole lives and never found a compatible organ. Yet on their side, not only had every match been found, all the matched donors were clustered together. How was that possible?