Chapter 1563: Can I... Do It?

Pan Yuanwen is the head of a key department at Hui City Headquarters. He carved time out of his packed schedule to come to Hui-3 to inspect work, only to be hit by an explosion and infected with an incurable Qiang-synthesized toxin. He endures pain no ordinary person could bear every day, yet insists on handling work whenever he is lucid, and has never spoken a harsh word to the medical staff.

This kind of leader—holding a high position without arrogance—earned unanimous praise from the medical staff of Hui-3 Hospital.

If anyone else had spoken to Pan Yuanwen like that, the attending physician might not dare say anything out loud, but would certainly be unhappy inside.

But hearing the big shot say this, the attending physician somehow felt that the big shot was using an unfinished major goal to encourage Minister Pan to keep fighting the virus!

Pan Yuanwen's face twitched from the pain, his voice trembling, but his tone was full of respect. "You're too kind. If I can make sure there are no unburied dead from starvation in our Hui City, I'll have no regrets even in death. The soldier behind you with the sniper rifle—is that Director Xia?"

Zhang San, as always, did not reply to idle talk. Xia Qing, wearing a one-way light-transmitting protective mask, merely nodded.

Deputy Base Commander Li Xuegang smoothed things over. "Minister Pan, Director Xia is on guard duty today by order. She can't be distracted. Can you still hold on? Do you want a painkiller?"

Take your medicine and sleep quickly—don't upset the big shot again.

"I can hold on." Pan Yuanwen slowly leaned back against the headrest, stared blankly at Xia Qing, and said nothing more, as if recalling something from the past.

Seeing that he had finally quieted down, Li Xuegang quickly turned his attention back to the big shot, listening as he discussed treatment plans with the attending physicians of the two important wounded.

Xia Qing glanced at Pan Yuanwen, confirmed he posed no threat, then focused intently on the high-rise buildings outside the bulletproof window that might hide snipers or gunners.

"... The mechanism of the existing suppressive agents is mainly to competitively occupy or alter the conformation of cell membrane receptors through exogenous molecules, in order to block the binding of the toxin to the receptor. However, since the toxin has already replicated extensively in the body, and its autocatalytic process continues, simply relying on receptor blockade can no longer control the spread of the infection..."

When the attending physician briefed Zhang San on Pan Yuanwen's condition, his anger was hard to suppress.

Qiang elements are already extremely hard to control, yet some people still use them to synthesize all kinds of toxins to harm their own kind. Are they not satisfied that the evolutionary competition on Blue Star isn't cruel enough, that not enough humans have died!

Zhang San nodded and vividly explained the latest research progress to the greying-templed doctor before him. "Qiang-13 is like a self-replicating key. Existing drugs are just constantly clogging the 'keyhole,' but the patient already has too many 'keys' inside—there's no way to plug them all."

"You're right. Minister Pan gave the special-effect suppressive agent he had sent over to Deputy Director Wang, so the spread of the toxin in his body is more severe than Deputy Director Wang's." This agent had to be taken within half an hour of poisoning, and at the time there was only one dose—impossible to save two people.

Zhang San himself only had two doses of that special-effect agent, which he had prepared for Xia Qing—not specifically sent over to save others.

However, there was no need to broadcast this to everyone and increase the risk of Xia Qing being robbed. Zhang San continued his briefing. "The researchers are tackling another detoxification approach: instead of clogging the 'keyhole,' they pour large quantities of forged 'key blanks' into the bloodstream—similar in shape but non-functional."

The attending physician understood at once. "You mean... competitive inhibition?"

Seeing that this doctor had solid professional ability, Zhang San went into more detail. "The Seventh Laboratory at Red-2 Base is developing a molecular suppressant codenamed 'Mirror-13.' Its molecular structure is almost identical to the catalytic end of 'Qiang-13,' but it has no toxicity and cannot initiate replication."

The attending physician's pupils contracted slightly, and he immediately grasped the key to this research. "Professor Fu, I understand! This mechanism is to have 'Mirror-13' compete with the real Qiang-13 for that protease target! As long as there are enough 'fake keys' in the patient's body and they bind fast enough, the replication efficiency of the Qiang-13 toxin can be greatly reduced, suppressing the toxin's autocatalytic process to an extremely low level!!!"

Zhang San corrected him. "After Blue Star's evolution, the human body's own metabolic system has at least doubled in function. If Mirror-13 succeeds, it is expected to gradually clear the Qiang-13 from the patient's body."

"Right, you're absolutely right! Blue Star has evolved, humanity has evolved!" The attending physician excitedly raised his voice. "Professor Fu, how likely is this mirror suppressant to succeed?"

The sooner this agent comes out, the less one more day the patients will suffer.

Zhang San answered cautiously. "That depends on the manpower and resources invested. If Dr. Xu is interested and can spare the energy to engage in related research, you may write a 'Clinical Observation and Theoretical Deduction Report' and submit it to me. If your report passes the preliminary review, you can join the project team and accelerate the new drug's development."

Xu Min, the attending physician for Pan Yuanwen and Wang Lizhi, was stunned for two seconds, then asked, lacking confidence, "Can I... do it?"

She was just a non-evolver doctor at Hui-3 Hospital. She was already thirty-nine this year, shuttling between outpatient clinics and wards every day, with no time for research, and had never published a high-level scientific paper...

Li Xuegang hurriedly gave Xu Min a look. The big shot says you can do it, so you can—even if you can't, you must. This is a pie falling from the sky; even if it cracks your skull, you have to catch it!

But Li Xuegang only dared to widen his eyes; he didn't dare speak out of turn in front of the big shot. For two years, he had finally gotten this chance to show his face before the big shot, and he was terrified that one extra word would displease the big shot and get himself blacklisted.

Once he landed on the big shot's blacklist, he wouldn't need to keep his seat as deputy base commander anymore.

Zhang San had no interest in encouraging people. "If you think you can't, then don't write it."

Xia Qing...

Xu Min immediately replied, "I can! Tonight... no, I'll write it at noon, and I'll send the report to your email before eight tomorrow morning! Thank you for your guidance, thank you for giving me this chance..."

Xia Qing...

Zhang San cut off Xu Min's rambling. "Send it to me before eight the day after tomorrow. I'll give you an answer before noon twelve the day after that."

"Yes!" Xu Min responded with high fighting spirit, her voice so forceful it made the ECG of the unconscious Wang Lizhi jump sharply.

The big shot's inspection ended, and he turned, picked up his protective mask, and headed out.

"Third Brother, thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule... to visit... us." Lying in the hospital bed, Pan Yuanwen's muscles twitched from the pain and his voice was slurred, but he still offered a thorough thanks.

Zhang San naturally paid him no heed and walked out without looking back.

"Xia Qing." Pan Yuanwen spoke again, a touch of gentleness in his voice. "Protect Third Brother... protect yourself. You must survive."

Xia Qing, who was following Zhang San and learning micro-expression analysis, nodded, and escorted her idol out.

From Pan Yuanwen's expression and tone just now, she deduced that Minister Pan, who carried all of humanity in his heart, was thinking of his son—about her own age—who had died in the Wanhe Gathering Area.