Chapter 186
Chapter 186
Nan Mu was curious about the package, but he could not simply ask Ah Chuan to hand it over.
He messaged Qiu Ziyu, asking him to obtain it as police evidence.
Qiu Ziyu replied quickly: OK. I’m at the detention center waiting to see Wen Tangtang. I’ll go tomorrow.
Noticing Nan Mu’s distraction, Ah Chuan asked, “Did you come here for something today?”
“Oh.” Nan Mu collected himself. “I’m looking for Wang Zheng.”
“Doesn’t he have a lecture today?”
Thinking aloud, Ah Chuan led Nan Mu to the campus bulletin board a few steps away. It was covered in posters, including one advertising that day’s lecture.
“I thought so. He should be nearly finished.”
Nan Mu followed his gaze.
===
Lecturer: Professor Wang Zheng, Biological Science and Life Research
Topic: Medical Applications of Cloning
Time: October 18, 2032, 3:00 p.m.
Location: Lecture Hall 202, Second Floor, Chongjing Building
===
How much things had changed.
Nan Mu, Wang Zheng, and Wen Tangtang had studied under the same adviser. At every review meeting, Wang Zheng had received the worst scolding.
Years had passed and lives had changed. Now Wang Zheng alone remained faithful to their adviser’s hopes.
Following his memory, Nan Mu found Room 202. The lecture hall was packed with unfamiliar faces. He slipped through the rear door and sat in the last row. Watching Wang Zheng write energetically at the front was like seeing their younger selves again.
“In recent years, rapid advances in materials science have produced many bioactive materials, driving enormous progress in cloning. Most cell-level cloning is now feasible. We have pacemakers for the heart, dialysis for circulation, and biochemical substitutes such as synthetic insulin for the endocrine system…
“You might say our world has entered an age in which life can be extended indefinitely.
“But that does not mean a person can live forever. Cloning technology has made no progress in one area: neural tissue.
“Scientists still struggle to make cloned organs fully functional, especially in regenerating internal blood vessels and nerves.
“Once the brain fails, it is effectively a death sentence…”
“Then what can be done about brain damage?”
Two students in the front rows drew Nan Mu’s attention.
“Directing stem cells to differentiate into specific cells is too difficult, especially at an exact location. Neural transplantation may be the only workable method, but donor tissue has a high rejection rate, while autologous tissue may be insufficient. Wisdom Biotech Company began studying the problem more than ten years ago and still hasn’t solved it…”
“Would embryos work better?”
“Embryos and brain tissue aren’t the same. You’d be better off hoping your mother gave birth to twins.”
“Twins can be fraternal.”
“Then clone yourself.”
“Ha! A genetic fragment is one thing, but to develop neural tissue it would have to grow up. Can you wait that long? And once it grows up, it’s a person-with human rights.”
Brain damage. Directed stem-cell differentiation. Transplants. A human cloned from someone’s genes…
The realization struck Nan Mu like lightning. The air seemed to freeze. All sound receded, leaving him isolated from the world.
===
He wandered out of the lecture hall in a daze and did not come to himself until his phone rang.
It was Qiu Ziyu.
The moment he answered, Qiu Ziyu’s frightened, excited voice poured through the phone.
“Nan Mu! I know! I finally figured it out!
“Wen Tangtang read the documents. Wisdom Biotech Company was secretly researching human cloning. She found Meng Ran, Xu Lei, and Jia Lingyuan on the experimental roster…”
Of course.
Of course!
…
===
Just as Meng Ran had said, Wisdom Biotech Company’s real projects did not match their public names.
Officially, Xu Lei’s project was Regeneration of Nerve Cells and Cloning Research of Stem Cells. In reality, his team was cloning human beings.
Because the company required absolute secrecy, even Xu Lei’s wife Meng Ran knew nothing about it.
That explained something Nan Mu had never understood.
Before Meng Ran was disfigured, she and Wen Miao had looked identical, yet Xu Lei had gone to great lengths to switch Meng Ran’s biological sample when Wen Xin submitted it for a paternity test.
He had not even tried to conceal the substitution, using his own sample instead, so they discovered it as soon as the results arrived.
Nan Mu had assumed Xu Lei merely wanted to hide the blood relationship between Wen Miao and Meng Ran.
But the real reason was that comparing their samples would reveal a horrifying secret: their genes matched one hundred percent.
Wen Miao was a clone Xu Lei had created from his wife’s genes.
That was why Xu Lei chose Wen Miao.
…
Jia Lingyuan had dared enter the Time Machine for the same reason: he had cloned another “himself” from his own genes.
Then did that mean…
Gu Zhishu, Su Yu, Zhaodi, and Wen Miao were all clones?
No…
Perhaps Wen Xin and Wen Tangtang were too.
That would explain the director of Happiness Orphanage’s account. Why had all six children worn white gowns resembling hospital clothing? Why exactly six? Why did they seem abandoned by one family despite sharing no blood relationship?
Because they were test subjects-clones confined to an observation room.
But if they were experimental subjects, why had Wisdom Biotechnology not kept them under strict laboratory control? Why abandon them at an orphanage to grow up?
===
Qiu Ziyu rushed to see Nan Mu as soon as he left the detention center. Wen Tangtang’s conclusion had overturned his entire worldview.
“So Wen Miao, Wen Tangtang, and Wen Xin were all clones?” He gulped tea to steady himself. “No wonder all three siblings were so smart. They must have selected genes from exceptional people.”
Still incredulous, he asked, “Wen Miao was cloned from Meng Ran. What about Wen Tangtang and Wen Xin? Whose genes did they use?”
“I don’t know.” Nan Mu shook his head. “But the biological-team members corresponding to those two probably never used the Time Machine.”
Qiu Ziyu agreed. Wen Miao, Gu Zhishu, and the others had all had neural tissue removed from their brains. Only Wen Xin and Wen Tangtang remained unharmed.
“Something still doesn’t add up,” he said. “If they were test subjects, they should never have been allowed into society.”
“There must have been an accident,” Nan Mu said. “For some reason, they escaped the laboratory that year and were taken in by Happiness Orphanage.”
Qiu Ziyu studied the printed files, then pointed to one entry. “I don’t know if this is relevant, but look at this…”