Clash

Despite being only 175 centimeters tall and having a physique that looked nowhere near strong, he was still stronger than both Liang Chao and Pan Bo, who had practically wrecked their bodies with overindulgence. Furthermore, due to having fused his cells with the T-Virus, he could even probably fight the likes of special forces operatives to a standstill.

Better still, what truly made Zhang Heng a different man from who he was than before was not his newfound physical power, but his elevated viewpoint and attitude.

Pan Bo's attempts to provoke him looked like little more than a street thug trying to intimidate the leaders of a nation to him, and the likes of national leaders wouldn't have bothered taking the words of such thugs seriously.

But then again, not taking the other guy's words seriously was one thing; not fighting back was something else altogether.

"Pan Bo, I heard that Liang Chao had his dad arranged for an internship position for you in the organization department. Well well, isn't it nice to see a monkey finally making it as an ape, I wonder." Zhang Heng chuckled as he clapped Pan Bo's shoulder, making it look like they were buddies. Pan Bo was only 160 centimeters tall and his features did somehow resemble those of a monkey. Furthermore, Zhang Heng went on to stress the word 'ape', and anyone could tell that he was poking fun at the other man.

"You son of a b**ch!" Pan Bo flew into a rage right away. As someone who had successfully become a lackey of the son of the vice mayor, he was nonetheless a government servant, and, as a result, none among his peers dared to insult his appearance. He shrugged away Zhang Heng's hand and looked like he was about to argue with the other man.

Li Yiru's approval of Zhang Heng had no doubt caused Liang Chao to burn in the fires of jealousy, yet he had to hold it back nonetheless, for he couldn't afford to look like a thug before the girl of his dreams. He held Pan Bo, who truly looked like he was about to go berserk, right there and then, and took his turn to take jabs at Zhang Heng, "I see that you're feeling very good about yourself right now, no? What happened to the old, lowkey you, I wonder."

"Can't say that I'm actually feeling all that good about myself, just that I can't help doing something about some people who look like an ugly a** and annoying persistent with stuff," Zhang Heng retorted pointedly.

Liang Chao was barely able to contain himself hearing that, feeling he was losing face. He glared at Zhang Heng with spooky eyes.

Their interaction had attracted the attention of many in the lobby. All these people were Zhang Heng's teachers and classmates. They all gathered around, without making a scene. A man who looked to be in his early thirties frowned after hearing what Zhang Heng said, and acted like he was a respected teacher. "It's important to know your boundaries in society, you know. I know well that you're of the bad sort, but the most important thing leading to success is one's attitude. It's not that one could do well in society by earning good grades at school."

The man was Zhou Lin, who served as the advisor to Zhang Heng's batch as well as the teacher in charge of their class' affairs, which made him something like the homeroom teacher of a class in a high school setting. Despite being a teacher, he nonetheless favored Liang Chao when he was in charge of things back in school, often striking others out from scholarships and giving said scholarships to Liang Chao, just to earn the younger man's favor.

"Heh." Zhang Heng smirked and said nothing.

"Zhang Heng, quick, apologize to Liang Chao." Some of their classmates who worked with Liang Chao before began to urge him to apologize.

While Li Yiru felt rather vindicated by Zhang Heng's action of digging at Liang Chao, but seeing how everyone sided with Liang Chao and singled Zhang Heng out made her feel even more remorseful about what she did. It was also the first time in four years that she felt her classmates to be such a disgusting bunch. She feared for Zhang Heng and went on to change the subject.

"Zhang Heng, I'm not feeling so well, let's go take a seat over there."

"Sure, whatever our beautiful class rep says, I'd be very happy to oblige." Zhang Heng smirked and did a 'ladies first' gesture, ignoring the jabs from the crowd and Liang Chao's raging gaze.

The two of them took to some remote corner, and it was only then, that Li Yiru showed some concern. "Zhang Heng, thank you for taking my side in this, but you shouldn't go so far with digging at Liang Chao. Their family still counts for something after all."

"Hardly a concern, I'd say. If it hadn't been for him taking jabs at me, I wouldn't have wanted to offend him after all." Zhang Heng shrugged, noting that the time was about right and made his intentions of coming to the gathering clear.

"Class Rep, I've recently joined a private research team and we've produced a new drug that would work against cancer to a certain extent. Would you mind letting your grandfather test the drug out?"

Zhang Heng didn't claim the drug to be some miracle cure. Despite the advances of modern medicine, cancer was still considered a terminal disease in which one could fight only to delay its effects. Few could say that they had completely recovered from it.

"Your team? New drug?" Li Yiru was first stunned and then frowned for a little bit, feeling rather disappointed.

She knew that the reason Zhang Heng had gone out of his way to take her side and asked for her grandfather's wellbeing, was probably due to that so-called team and drug of his. Zhang Heng wanted to use the Li Clan's resources to bolster his agenda. The line of 'work against cancer, to a certain extent,' was entirely ignored.

"Oh, so you're throwing all that ruckus just to get on the side of the Li Clan eh?" Just when Li Yiru was figuring out how she should reject Zhang Heng's offer, Pan Bo walked up to them, with his master's permission, and jabbed at him after hearing the previous conversation by accident.

"You really are obstinate." Zhang Heng shook his head and paid no heed to Li Yiru misunderstanding his intentions, going on to stress right away, "Class rep, please don't think for a second that I'm trying to make use of the Li Clan here. When I said that that the drug that my team worked on could very possibly work against cancer, I wasn't making things up. If you find it impossible to believe me, then I'll just take my leave right away."

Li Yiru looked at Zhang Heng with a new, appraising expression. Zhang Heng looked very much like he knew what he was saying and doing. It was like he was elaborating a fact instead of just telling a story, which began to make her wonder about things. "So… that drug your team developed, is it approved by the authorities? Have you guys undergone clinical tests with it?"

"Not yet. The drug that my team developed was completed just days ago." Zhang Heng shook his head.

"Hahahaha!" Pan Bo acted as if he had just heard a joke like no other, laughing uproariously, causing everyone else to turn their attention to the three of them. Liang Chao took the opportunity to come over to them as well. "Pan Bo, what's so funny?"

"Oh my, Mr. Liang. Zhang Heng just said that he just developed something that could cure cancer!" Pan Bo shouted—a deliberate move to make sure that everyone was able to hear that.

"Oh?" A tinge of sarcasm was seen in Liang Chao's eyes, "My, my, I never knew you to be so capable, Little Zhang. Are you telling us that it was you who developed such a drug?"

The entire lobby was filled with laughter all of a sudden. Everyone present was a top student in the field of biomedicine, and everyone knew very well just how costly it would be to develop a new drug. Despite companies claiming to have developed new drugs and medicines all the time, they were usually just recycling the same old same old most of the time.

True development of new effective pharmaceuticals was something that no one with less than a billion yuan to spare would dare to even touch.

Zhang Heng remained unfazed and looked at his classmates in the lobby, who were all laughing at him at the moment. He waited for the laughter to die down before saying, "Cancer is difficult to treat, for sure, but technology is always progressing and people are too as well. Who is it to say that no one could ever develop drugs that would eradicate cancer for good?"

"There are only a handful of proposed methods of treating cancer right now. Okay, just elaborate for a bit on how that new drug of yours is going to treat cancer then," Someone among the crowd said while trying to stifle their laughter.

"Simple. We would treat cancer at the genetic level. That's the only way that could eradicate cancer for good, no?"

Hahahaha…. The crowd laughed yet again.

"Oh my, somebody's drinking a little too much." Liang Chao raised the glass in his hand, laughing so hard that tears were about to roll out of his eyes. "If you actually managed to develop such a drug, you'd have made international news, dude. Why bother coming to the party then? Shouldn't you be on your way to receive the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine?"

Zhang Heng smirked without retorting. He simply turned around to address Li Yiru, who had been silent the whole time, solemnly, "Class rep, if you're really concerned about your grandfather's body, why not just try the drug out? Shouldn't you seize the opportunity even if it's one hell of a long shot?"