The first to step onto the stage domestically was Fu Qing.
Previously in NY, after the Lasker Awards ceremony, Jiang Fuyue had met her and her grandfather twice.
Once at the Lasker banquet, once during a private itinerary with Xie Dingyuan, where they bumped into each other at a restaurant.
Both times, Xie Dingyuan and Jiang Fuyue did not give her any friendly looks.
Fu Qing is thirty this year, a postdoctoral researcher at Medical University, currently with six SCI papers in hand, a rising star in the field of pediatric immunology.
Her “attack” on Jiang Fuyue, whether from a professional standpoint or considering her current academic status, seemed entirely justified.
A pediatric immunology expert questioned whether Schankwo’s miracle drug was harmful to pregnant women and fetuses, no problem with that.
If it weren’t for those two encounters, for the caution and hostility unintentionally revealed in the words of the grandfather and granddaughter, Jiang Fuyue might almost have believed it.
After Fu Qing spoke out, several other experts and scholars in pediatric immunology quickly publicly expressed their criticisms of Jiang Fuyue.
Then, people in virology also jumped in.
Next came clinical medicine, biopharmaceuticals…
In less than a week, Jiang Fuyue went from being a “genius rising star” and “light of academia” to a street rat that everyone in the domestic medical world wanted to trample.
Yet Jiang Fuyue, the person involved, had no idea.
She had already been in the laboratory for a full five days.
It was still Xu Kaiqing who couldn’t stand it. At an academic conference, facing the shameless slander of the crowd, he couldn’t help but say: “Relying solely on an unverified paper from R Country, people are so eager to smear Jiang Fuyue, it’s really too ugly to watch.”
These words hit a sore spot in many people’s hearts, those hidden but glaringly obvious pettinesses.
Jiang Fuyue had become famous at a young age, was an A+ prodigy, had developed a miracle drug, and even won the Lasker Medical Award. The key: she was so young and not formally trained as a doctor.
In other words, a prize representing the ultimate honor in their industry was ultimately taken by an outsider.
How many people’s interests were touched by this? How many clenched their teeth in jealousy?
This “mass attack” was the product of long-standing grievances. The seeds were planted back when Jiang Fuyue first became known worldwide.
And Tosaki Kawashima’s paper was merely the fuse.
Don’t think academia is just a bunch of nerds; wherever there are people, there’s a world of intrigue, and the waters here are no shallower than in any other industry.
“Professor Xu, we respect you as a leading figure in physics and are willing to give you face, but matters of medicine are better left alone.”
“A monk teaching a Daoist scripture, completely unnecessary.”
“Everyone’s being polite. If you ask me, it’s like a dog catching mice, meddling in other people’s business!”
“……”
One comment after another, Xu Kaiqing’s face turned green with anger. He stormed off, sleeves sweeping.
He angrily rushed to the laboratory, grabbed Jiang Fuyue, and launched into a tirade,
“You don’t know how ugly those people’s faces are! Each of them is as if afraid of not stomping you to death. They look human, but not a bit humane!”
“It makes me furious! Furious!” He spun in place, unable to calm down. “That Zhao or Sun fellow actually said I was ‘a dog catching mice’? Who was he calling a dog?! I really wanted to rush up and beat him to death right then!”
“Let me tell you, if one of my doctoral students behaved this disgustingly, I would have expelled them from the lab and never admitted them again. How could he still be jumping around here?”
“The medical field has such low standards… For just a few papers, a few awards, people lose all shame… Every day they think not about saving lives, but internal conflicts… endless scheming…”
Xu Kaiqing’s short temper couldn’t contain his complaints at all.
Jiang Fuyue, meanwhile, exported her analysis results while listening to him pace back and forth, ranting for nearly half an hour.
Finally…
“Cough cough… my mouth’s dry. Any water?”
Jiang Fuyue didn’t lift her head: “On your left, count down from the top, second cabinet.”
Xu Kaiqing took out a bottle of mineral water, gulped down more than half, dragged over a chair, sat, and let out a long exhale.
Ah, much better.
Suddenly, he froze, looking at Jiang Fuyue a little dazed, a little incredulous: “I say, why aren’t you panicking at all? You even have the mood to play Sudoku?”
Yes. After exporting her results, during the interval while waiting for printing, Jiang Fuyue casually filled in a Sudoku grid.
She could almost see the answer at a glance, finished a page, flipped to the next, it looked more leisurely than anyone.
Xu Kaiqing: “?” What kind of operation is this? I was dumbstruck!
She even asked: “Do you want to play?”
Xu Kaiqing: “……”
“You… you… you… might as well just make me furious!”
Jiang Fuyue: “Why say ‘furious’? You look perfectly healthy. Don’t curse yourself.”
Xu Kaiqing: “……” No, I’m not healthy at all!
The old man’s chest rose and fell several times. In the end, he couldn’t stand it and left in exasperation.
Jiang Fuyue finished the last square on that page, put down the pen, and helplessly called: “Old Xu, come back.” At that moment, all the analysis results were also printed.
Xu Kaiqing: “I won’t!”
Though he said that, his legs betrayed him; he curved around and returned.
“What do you need me for?” He lifted his chin, acting quite proud.
“You mentioned a Professor Qian at Q University’s Medical Department?”
“Yes! Qian Youwen, why?”
Jiang Fuyue: “From what I know, he’s an obstetrician?”
“Right, though he’s no longer seeing patients much, mostly mentoring students. Why are you suddenly asking?”
“How is your relationship with Professor Qian?”
Xu Kaiqing: “Quite good.”
“Then help me with something?”
Xu Kaiqing’s eyes lit up: “Say it!”
After these days of secluded research, Jiang Fuyue had thoroughly digested Tosaki Kawashima’s paper. The animal experiments were easy to replicate, but clinical trials were very hard to get samples for.
The subjects must be pregnant women infected with the Schankwo virus, where would she find them?
Fortunately, according to Tosaki Kawashima’s paper, the reason the Schankwo miracle drug harms pregnant women and fetuses is due to two hormone components: SAP and GEP.
The FDA has classified both drugs as Category C.
Category C means animal studies show harm to fetuses (teratogenicity or embryonic death), but either no controlled studies on pregnant women have been done, or research on pregnant women and animals is still lacking.
Only if the benefit to the mother outweighs the risk to the fetus can it be used.
Key point: this means it can be used!
According to international drug classification, SAP and GEP are not actually X-category drugs as Tosaki Kawashima privately claimed in his paper.
But what is his argument?
He said that under the combined action of these two hormones, drugs that are individually Category C can collectively cause harm reaching Category X in the mother.
Therefore, if Jiang Fuyue wanted to refute this, she would need to replicate clinical trials to prove that under SAP and GEP, the harm level to mother and fetus is not X.
But she is not a doctor and doesn’t have the time to find enough qualifying patients.
Xu Kaiqing: “…You mean, get Old Qian to help, have him provide data from women who took both SAP and GEP during pregnancy?”
“Yes,” Jiang Fuyue nodded. “Use existing clinical cases to extract relevant data for analysis.”
So far, this was the only way she could quickly obtain clinical trial data.
Xu Kaiqing patted his chest: “No problem! Leave it to me!”
He immediately took out his phone to contact Qian Youwen.
“Old Qian, it’s me… recently doing well… the experimental project is progressing smoothly… actually, I have something I’d like your help with…”
“…Here’s the situation…”
Xu Kaiqing roughly explained Jiang Fuyue’s current problem and the help she hoped to get.
Qian Youwen: “You came to the right person! For decades, all data on pregnant women’s medication, body data, fetal development, and postnatal metrics handled by Q University’s affiliated hospital OB-GYN department, I have all of it.”
Xu Kaiqing’s eyes lit up, nodding to Jiang Fuyue in delight.
She also exhaled in relief.
“…Alright, I’ll follow your lead. Two o’clock this afternoon, right? Okay, see you then.”
The call ended.
Xu Kaiqing put away his phone and made an “OK” gesture to Jiang Fuyue: Done!
“Let’s go to his lab this afternoon for face-to-face discussion.”
Originally, they thought it was settled, but unexpectedly…
Want to show your support? Go donate at Paypal or Ko-fi to show your appreciation! :)
