Lu Boyuan was not a good drunk.

Normally, he already had quite a scholarly temperament. After drinking, he would become a long-winded, pedantic scholar. He had held it in while seeing Professor Wu home, but by the time they got back, the alcohol had gone to his head, and Lu Yixin began to find it overwhelming.

“Give me your phone!” Her father started to act recklessly.

“Don’t you have your own phone?!” Lu Yixin was so angry she even considered calling Liu Miqing to complain about him.

Today, he had even said Fang Yongnian’s leg was a fake leg. Although he had said it only after Fang Yongnian had left, she had still been angry the whole way home.

Lu Boyuan ran a hand through his hair, extremely indignant: “That kid won’t answer my calls.”

He thought about it, and became even more indignant: “Why won’t he answer my calls, but he’s willing to answer yours?”

Lu Yixin nearly rolled her eyes into the back of her head. She was truly a filial daughter, even making him tea at a time like this.

Lu Boyuan stewed in his anger for a long time, then took a sip of the tea his daughter had made.

“He knows exactly how difficult it is to develop original drugs in China now. The old professor spent a full four years just to get the project restarted. Today, he spent four minutes destroying all the preparations we made in the early stages.” Lu Boyuan leaned back on the sofa, weary and heartbroken.

“But he still can’t collaborate with bad people.” Lu Yixin instinctively wanted to speak up for Fang Yongnian.

Lu Boyuan was stunned.

After a very, very long time, he finally sighed: “If only everything could be that simple.”

The alcohol amplified his emotions. He needed to vent – about the unresolved issues with Fang Yongnian over the past four years, and about the original drug development career to which he had devoted his life.

“In China, for most people, the concept of an original drug often even refers only to imported drugs whose patent protection has expired. Developing original drugs is difficult. Developing original drugs for neurodegenerative diseases is even harder.”

“From target identification to market launch, a new drug requires billions of US dollars in investment and a development cycle of ten, even twenty-plus years. For any pharmaceutical company, if such a project fails, the blow is fatal. Not to mention a disease like Alzheimer’s. How many major companies in history have declared bankruptcy after failing to develop an Alzheimer’s drug?”

Lu Yixin refilled her father’s cup with tea.

“It’s too difficult to get an original drug project approved.”

“Back then, our project… even if it ultimately wasn’t successful, it would certainly have left behind extremely rare and valuable experience… If not for that accident…” Lu Boyuan sighed.

“That car accident?” Lu Yixin asked cautiously.

That car accident, which Fang Yongnian believed was not an accident, but which her father consistently referred to as an accident.

“Even without that car accident…” Lu Boyuan smiled bitterly.

Lu Yixin looked at her father. Her father was forty-five years old this year. Because he spent all his time in the laboratory, he was slightly overweight and had fair skin.

Now, drunk, perhaps due to disappointment, or perhaps because he was truly tired, he looked… a bit old.

“Was there… something else?” Lu Yixin couldn’t help but ask.

The events of that year, the truth that the adults had buried deep in their hearts, treated as taboo.

“Are these things for you to ask about?! What time is it? Why aren’t you in bed yet?” Lu Yixin stared dumbfounded as her dear father switched from a despondent state to a violent state without any transition.

“Leave your phone!” he continued to roar, “I need to call that kid!”

Lu Yixin: “…”

She had still wanted to take advantage of Lu Boyuan’s drunken state to hear some truths about what had happened back then. Who knew Lu Boyuan would suddenly sober up like that.

When Fang Yongnian’s car accident happened, she was only fourteen. At that time, because Liu Miqing’s job was being transferred from Huating City back to Hecheng, she had to change schools, say goodbye to her former classmates, and on top of that, there was Fang Yongnian’s car accident. That year, she practically lived in tears.

The adults all said it was just an accident. Her mother kept comforting her, saying Uncle Fang would definitely get better, that technology was advanced now, and once he got a prosthetic limb and practiced with it, it wouldn’t be noticeable.

During that period, she watched a lot of Paralympic Games. Her idol was broken, her simple, beautiful little world was all bleak and miserable. She hadn’t paid any attention to the changes in the adults at all.

By the time she noticed, Fang Yongnian had already had a falling out with her father. He no longer went to the laboratory, but instead chose to open a pharmacy in Hecheng. A pharmacy with little business, one that often gave things away casually.

That year, many things must have happened.

On the day Lu Yixin turned eighteen, the day her father got drunk and caused a scene all night, she crossed the dividing line between child and adult.

She finally realized that it was not just something for the adults.

It wasn’t something that could be laughed off with a “this is adult business, children shouldn’t interfere.” Neither Fang Yongnian nor her father had gotten over the events of that year; they were both still in pain.

It was something that even the adults couldn’t handle.

୨୧ ⏔⏔⏔⏔♡⏔⏔⏔⏔ ୨୧

Therefore, she chose to seek help from Zheng Ranran.

“So you mean, Fang Yongnian suspects that the car accident back then wasn’t an accident, and he even suspects that the person who deliberately caused that accident was your father?”

Zheng Ranran was a girl who didn’t show her emotions much, but hearing this news suddenly, she still couldn’t help being stunned.

Lu Yixin nodded: “I think I finally understand why Fang Yongnian has been so resistant all these years whenever he hears my father’s name.”

“But…” Zheng Ranran felt she needed a moment to process this.

If this was true, then this was murder…

“Why does he think your father did it?” Lu Boyuan—even she knew he was a paper tiger.

“He believes in evidence.” Lu Yixin actually understood Fang Yongnian quite well.

In the past, he never made any predictions before doing an experiment; he only believed in things that objectively existed.

So if Fang Yongnian started suspecting her father four years ago, it must have been because all the evidence available to Fang Yongnian at that time pointed to her father.

“But Fang Yongnian is very good to you.” Zheng Ranran was almost getting tangled up in this.

“He said he’s a pervert.” Lu Yixin told the truth.

Zheng Ranran: “…”

“Then what about your father?” She felt that even having lived to eighteen, she still couldn’t understand how adults thought.

“My father probably suspects Fang Yongnian took money and sold project materials.” Lu Yixin hesitated, “And I think my father’s attitude is strange…”

“His attitude towards Fang Yongnian at the dinner table yesterday was a bit like how my father yelled at me last year after he broke the pen you gave me.”

That look of shame turning into anger, that guilty look…

This relationship is really…

Zheng Ranran: “And what about you?”

Compared to these heavy revelations, Lu Yixin seemed a bit too calm.

“I…” Lu Yixin sniffled, “I feel like it’s not real.”

So she had been avoiding it until last night when she saw her father and saw Fang Yongnian. Only then did she tangibly feel that this thing which sounded so unrealistic was truly happening.

“I trust my father, and I also trust Fang Yongnian.” She looked at Zheng Ranran, “I’m different from them; I don’t look at evidence.”

How can you measure people’s hearts with evidence?

She wasn’t a rational person. She trusted her father, and she trusted the Fang Yongnian she had liked for six years. She had no evidence, but these two people were her world.

If these two people were both bad, then her world would have already fallen apart long ago.

Zheng Ranran nodded and took out paper and pen.

“The point where your father thinks Fang Yongnian is at fault is Fang Yongnian’s money.”

“And the point where Fang Yongnian thinks your father is at fault is what?”

“I only heard that the truck driver who caused the accident knew my father, and that my father investigated Fang Yongnian after the car accident.” Lu Yixin tilted her head, desperately trying to remember, “Also, back then, project documents were leaked. Only my father and Fang Yongnian had access to those documents.”

Zheng Ranran glanced at Lu Yixin.

“What?” Lu Yixin felt a bit unnerved by her look.

“It’s impressive you remember so clearly.” Zheng Ranran sighed. But what use was remembering clearly? This really wasn’t a problem that could be solved by people their age.

But in this kind of matter, Lu Yixin, who was usually so impulsive, had actually held back until she had figured it out herself before coming to discuss it with her. That meant she would absolutely not give up on this.

“I believe there must have been a third person involved in what happened back then.” Reaching the crucial point, Lu Yixin’s eyes sparkled, “There must have been someone my father and Fang Yongnian never expected, who did these bad things behind the scenes, causing my father and Fang Yongnian to fall out. He must have been jealous of my father and Fang Yongnian’s abilities, or had a grudge against both of them.”

Once you have a motive, you can investigate people!

That’s how it always plays out on TV.

Zheng Ranran facepalmed: “…”

This reckless fool…

“If Fang Yongnian simply suspected your father, why did he need to get the police to arrest someone at the banquet?”

“If he only wanted to target your father, then why did he sabotage the new project of your father and the old professor he respects so much?”

Zheng Ranran spoke very quickly.

“Also, if your father investigated him back then, why did he suddenly give up? He clearly still believes Fang Yongnian did those things now. What exactly happened back then that made him suddenly stop? You just said your father’s attitude was strange. Is it really only because he thinks Fang Yongnian took money and leaked the project?”

“It’s been almost four years since your Fang Yongnian’s car accident. In all these years, your father has never mentioned letting him join a project. Why does he suddenly want him to join a project now? And even asked so many people to help?”

“Your father and your Fang Yongnian originally had such a good relationship. For it to end up like this, can it really be explained clearly just by a third party framing them?”

Zheng Ranran adopted the demeanor that had won her first place in tHecheng debate competition, listing every doubt she could think of right now.

With each point listed, Lu Yixin’s shoulders slumped a little more.

“Even if someone did those things because they were jealous of your father and Fang Yongnian, how do you explain the subsequent doubts?”

“And most crucially, your Fang Yongnian and your father are both highly intelligent people. Why couldn’t they think of the problems you managed to figure out?”

Lu Yixin’s shoulders completely slumped.

“Then… what could it be because of?” She looked pitiful. She had thought about this conclusion all night, believing she had grasped the key to the problem.

Now, she felt completely shattered.

“How should I know.” Zheng Ranran tossed her pen aside.

She knew of Fang Yongnian. In Lu Yixin’s mind, he was practically an all-around superman, a hero who could pry up the Earth with one hand even missing a leg.

If someone of his caliber hadn’t been able to uncover the truth after so many years, what could two eighteen-year-old girls possibly find out?

But since Lu Yixin had already decided to get involved, she couldn’t just leave her to handle it alone.

“Yixin, this matter isn’t something people our age can solve. If you get involved, you might make the situation more complicated and messy.” Zheng Ranran spoke very seriously.

If that car accident wasn’t an accident, then it might even have been a premeditated murder.

Lu Yixin nodded.

She knew. That’s why she had thought it through herself before coming to Zheng Ranran. That’s why she didn’t dare act recklessly at all.

“Did Fang Yongnian tell you not to tell your father what you overheard from him about him investigating your dad?” It was a tongue-twisting sentence, but Zheng Ranran spat it out without pauses, speaking very fast.

Lu Yixin understood immediately and shook her head in denial: “He didn’t say that.”

Fang Yongnian had always been frank with her. Ever since her grandmother’s time, he had always communicated with her as an adult. He told her everything he could, and whether she told others or not was her choice.

“Then the only thing you can do now is one thing.” Zheng Ranran breathed a sigh of relief, “Find an opportunity to tell your father what you overheard from Fang Yongnian.”

“As for the rest, it’s all the adults’ business.” “You just need to watch and listen.”

Lu Yixin nodded solemnly.

The word “growth” was slowly seeping into their veins along with the passage of time.

___

Author’s note:

Little Yixin’s little thoughts have been discovered by Fang Yongnian!

Let me spoil a bit more—the misunderstanding is also just about to be discovered after Yixin’s little thoughts are found out.