Chapter 366: Chapter 253: The Truth! (Part 2)
Thousands...
Thousands!?
At this point, even someone as slow as Wang Chao had his pupils suddenly contract, his heart pounding wildly, horror written all over his face.
Forget thousands, even if it were ten, twenty people—once something happened, it would already count as a major case!
But even so, when that number came out of the other party’s mouth...
It was as insignificant as an ant.
And on top of that, we’re talking about....
Babies!!!
"Damn it!"
Wang Chao’s eyebrows shot up, fury exploding; he lunged forward, grabbed the other man’s collar with both hands, and his muscles tensed.
In an instant, the bound Huang Liang was hoisted up like a lamb waiting to be slaughtered.
Those rage-filled eyes of his were locked dead on the man in front of him.
"You got a death wish or what!?"
"If you want to die, I’ll oblige you!"
The two roars were deafening. Wang Chao’s ferocious face, the shout right at his ear, made Huang Liang’s head spin.
Just as Wang Chao was about to swing.
A hand suddenly blocked his shoulder.
"Keep it down. This is the pharma company’s R&D department. Security’s tight. If you’re too loud, none of us are getting out of here."
Xu Liang, behind him, held Wang Chao back and spoke flatly.
He’d already checked the layout of the R&D department on the way in. Security was everywhere; any noise and they’d rush over immediately. By then, including himself, they’d all be caught by the company...
The company wouldn’t get away either, but he didn’t want the extra trouble.
"But Brother Liang, this bastard is too much of an animal!"
Wang Chao was choked with grief and rage, eyes burning, feeling utterly suppressed.
Xu Liang ignored that and instead sized the man up, then suddenly asked:
"You’re talking about illegal experiments?"
Huang Liang paused, then shook his head. "I already said it."
"Most are illegal, a few are legal, and some... are people paid to test drugs."
Some people will stop at nothing for money.
They’ll sell organs, steal, even kill. As long as you pay, they’ll do anything, even if it costs them their life!
Like some gamblers—money flows out of their hands like a waterfall, but legitimate income comes in painfully slow.
So...
"They go through the black market and do drug trials there."
"Of course, usually they bring their own kids. Before they sell the baby, they’ll let the company test drugs on them too."
Huang Liang spoke calmly, as if oblivious to how horrifying his words were.
Xu Liang asked again, "How many people have died?"
Hearing this.
Huang Liang paused, lifted his eyelids and glanced at him, then sneered:
"Relax, basically no one died."
"The company just wants to save time and costs. President Han is willing to take risks for money, but he’s not stupid enough to charge straight into a guaranteed-death scenario!"
"Besides, there are overseas branches too. They have R&D departments as well. The victims aren’t just in this country."
Han Chengguang wanted to make money.
But he wasn’t an idiot!
When you’re dealing with thousands of infants, how could he possibly inject them with something that would blow them up on the spot!?
"I told you, over these twenty years the company didn’t just develop one leukemia drug, but thirty-two drugs!"
Huang Liang explained. As his voice fell, Wang Chao’s anger slowly cooled a little.
"Thirty-two drugs. Some are cheap, some are expensive miracle drugs and targeted therapies."
"Most of the ones aimed at infants are vaccines. Compared to other drugs, they’re much gentler."
"In most cases, we only go to human trials in private after the lab results are preliminarily stable."
As he spoke, Huang Liang paused, then added another line.
"As for deaths...very, very few. To this day there have been no cases of someone dying on the spot."
"Only a tiny minority have adverse reactions due to side effects, which then show up in different ways."
If the mortality rate were high.
There’d be no way to cover it up. Superstar Pharmaceutical Group would be torn to pieces in minutes!
As for efficacy... just like he said, there’s no way all thirty-two drugs are miracle cures. That’s impossible, even if they really started human trials right at the lab stage and stomped right over the bodies of the dead.
Forget everything else—just the funding alone would never cover it!
So...
"What’s the story with Li Guang’s death?"
Xu Liang suddenly asked again.
No matter what, the case started because of Li Guang, and Li Guang did die from the drug. So he still had to get clear on this.
Huang Liang said:
"At first, we wanted to develop a drug for thalassemia. That’s a huge market. Once Zeyoutai came out, the company could quickly grab a massive share!"
"But unfortunately."
"At the early stage, it was very hard to control the side effects. But this thing is a gold mine, so even if the side effects were unknown, we still had to try it."
"We just didn’t expect that the side effects would cause that batch of people to show leukemia symptoms two years after the drug trial..."
"And just so happens, the company had been eager to develop a new drug for leukemia as well, so we started recording targeted data and providing drug treatment."
In other words...
Three years ago, Feng Nan’s family of three became lab rats for their thalassemia trials.
Three years later, they became lab rats again, this time for leukemia...
Wang Chao felt a suffocating pressure in his chest. The look he gave Huang Liang grew darker and darker.
"Over the past twenty years, how many people have died in total!?" Xu Liang’s gaze sharpened, pinning down the key point.
"A total of thirty‑one people."
Huang Liang spoke truthfully, without the slightest intention of hiding anything. He paused, then added:
"At least half of them took the risk themselves, volunteered to be lab rats for money, and died from products in the trial-drug lab stage."
"The other half are people in the same situation as Li Guang."
Thirty‑one people...
Compared to how many people they used for experiments, that number is indeed small.
But if you compare it to an ordinary case... that absolutely counts as something that blows the roof off!
It’s even fair to say, the nature of this case is extraordinarily vile; if it gets exposed... compared with Sunzhou’s steel scandal, the consequences will only be worse, not lighter!
"Tsk, that’s a bit tricky..."
Xu Liang muttered.
Right now, the Sunzhou steel case, after nearly two months of handling, was gradually entering its endgame.
Most of the buildings had been dismantled, the steel had disposal sites; they’d just managed to breathe a little easier, and now... something like this blows up!
But tricky is tricky—if he had to pretend he hadn’t seen it... Xu Liang definitely wasn’t okay with that!
"Do you have data and information on these 31 people!?"
Xu Liang suddenly asked.
Among the dead was Li Guang.
And the case... was built on the premise that the drug smuggled by Wu Fang and Kong Jian was fake, and that Li Guang died from taking it!
Now, if they could get hold of this piece of evidence....
They could completely have the prosecutor’s indictment thrown out, and then only sentence them for smuggling!
"Some we do, some we don’t."
Huang Liang shook his head. His emotions were still calm; there was no visible urgency.
"After some drugs finish development, the company destroys the illegal-experiment portion, and fabricates a fake R&D process."
"What about Li Guang’s information?" Xu Liang asked.
"It’s still there. Zeyoutai and the treatment for leukemia haven’t been fully developed yet, so his data won’t be casually destroyed."
"Pull it up for me." Xu Liang said.
Unfortunately, after that sentence, Huang Liang stopped answering.
Xu Liang wasn’t in a hurry. He just quietly stared at him. After a long while, Huang Liang finally said:
"I have a condition."
Without thinking, Xu Liang said bluntly, "Say it."
"There’s a drug that’s only one month from completion. It’s my seven years of hard work. Once it’s developed, a lot fewer people in this world will die." Huang Liang said.
A lot fewer people will die...
Hearing this, a faint sense of strangeness immediately rose in Wang Chao’s heart.
A beast who ran illegal human experiments, causing 31 people to die and leaving unknown side effects in the rest....
Actually has this kind of thought in his head!
The sense of dissonance was off the charts.
"A month? No way." Xu Liang shook his head and started bargaining with him.
"Twenty days, at least twenty days!"
Huang Liang’s pupils tightened, his tone low.
"Don’t worry, I’m very clear about the situation I’m in. I won’t run, and I won’t go spouting nonsense."
"Give me twenty days, and I’ll help you organize and archive everything the pharma company has done!"
"I’ve worked at Superstar Pharmaceutical Company for nineteen years—nobody knows better than me what they’ve done!"
"You’re not losing out. The police and official investigators will definitely take longer than I will!"
Hearing this, Xu Liang started thinking.
He wasn’t the least bit bothered about investigation time; his focus was on two other issues.
"Are the physical examinations within Qingshi City still ongoing?" Xu Liang asked.
"They’ve already stopped. They only look for test subjects once the drug has development results. After Li Guang died, they didn’t continue." Huang Liang said.
In other words, there wouldn’t be any new victims in Qingshi City in the short term.
And as for the drug he mentioned... with the Seven-Aperture Exquisite Heart, Xu Liang could tell he wasn’t lying.
Twenty days, the emergence of a new drug...
Even if it was built on a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood, still... you can’t deny that someone out there needs it!
As for someone else picking up the materials and continuing the research... that wasn’t even worth considering; the data would definitely be sealed away due to ethical and moral concerns, and no one would be able to use it in the short term!
After a long time, Xu Liang finally said, "Fine, I’ll agree."
"But I’ll give you at most 20 days. When those 20 days are up, I must have that information in my hands!"
"I also want naming rights!"
Huang Liang’s tone grew solemn. His hands clenched, his eyes staring straight at Xu Liang.
His voice grew increasingly urgent, sounding almost frantic.
"Once the drug is made public, I want everyone to know that I’m the one who developed it!"
That request... Xu Liang raised an eyebrow.
He scanned him up and down, then nodded, not wasting time on this point.
"Okay."
Just like Xu Liang likes money.
Some people like wealth, some love beautiful women, others crave power.
Naturally, there are also those obsessed with fame!
Huang Liang was a paranoid type. He wanted to see countless patients praising him, even if those patients were sick because of him, even if he carried infamy on his back!
He still wanted to be famous.
Huang Liang froze for a moment, a trace of confusion flashing in his eyes; he really hadn’t expected the other party to agree so quickly.
Xu Liang couldn’t be bothered with what he was thinking and directly said:
"Now."
"Pull up Li Guang’s information for me!"
