Chapter 61: The Research Institute (Part 2)
"I need to get inside," Jian Yiling calmly stated, pointing at the electronic card reader beside the entrance.
The guard sighed, clearly frustrated. "I've already told you, you can't go in. You need to follow the proper procedures. If everyone started causing scenes like you and your mother, things would fall apart. Take your mom home—making trouble here won't get you anywhere."
"She's not my mother," Jian Yiling replied, her voice as composed as ever.
The guard frowned, obviously not convinced. "What do you mean she's not your mother? You two came here together, I saw it with my own eyes! And what's a middle schooler doing here alone at a research institute? Don't try to fool me! Are you trying to trick me into letting you slip inside while I'm not paying attention?"
He was firmly convinced that Jian Yiling and the distressed woman outside were mother and daughter, both here to make trouble.
"I have an appointment with someone inside," Jian Yiling explained, her tone flat and unwavering, completely at odds with the woman outside who was wailing hysterically on the ground.
"An appointment? You're lying now? What kind of appointment would someone inside this research institute have with a middle schooler?" The guard's expression grew more exasperated, clearly believing that Jian Yiling was making up excuses.
As he glanced briefly at the sobbing woman still sprawled dramatically on the ground, the guard couldn't help but feel a sense of pity. In his mind, this was just another case of a bad parent setting a poor example for her child, leading the kid astray.
At that moment, Jian Yiling's phone buzzed with a message from inside the institute:
[Dr. F.S., where are you?]
She quickly typed a response:
[At the gate, but they won't let me in.]
The reply came almost immediately:
[Wait right there. I'll come to the gate to get you.]
Jian Yiling stood patiently. Around five minutes later, the research institute's gate began to slowly open.
The first person to react wasn't Jian Yiling, but the woman lying on the ground. She sprang to her feet, making a mad dash toward the entrance.
The guard was quick to intervene, grabbing her just in time. But the woman became even more agitated, her desperation reaching a fever pitch. "Let me go! Let me go! I need to see your director!"
As the situation escalated, a man emerged from inside the gate. He was slender, dressed in a white lab coat, and wore gold-rimmed glasses. His neatly trimmed short hair and pale skin suggested he spent most of his time in the lab.
"Doctor! Please save my husband! You have to help him!" The woman, restrained by the guard, lunged toward the man like a predator in pursuit of its prey, her voice cracking with emotion.
Cheng Yi's sharp eyes quickly took in the chaotic scene in front of him. His fingers instinctively adjusted his glasses as he turned to the guard and asked, "What's going on here?"
The guard explained, "This lady and her daughter are here to request medication for her husband. She claims she already registered on the institute's website."
Cheng Yi sighed and addressed both the woman and Jian Yiling, though his gaze remained mostly on the woman. "Please calm down. If you registered and haven't heard from us, it means the patient doesn't meet the criteria for the clinical trial of our new drug."
The woman was in no mood to listen. "Liar! You say you don't take money, but I know you're all getting bribes behind the scenes, aren't you? You're giving the spots to people who slip you cash under the table, aren't you?"
Cheng Yi rubbed his temples, feeling a headache coming on. He turned to the guard and said quietly, "If she won't leave, call the police. I have an important guest to attend to."
Hearing the word "police," the woman finally backed down, though she stubbornly stayed near the entrance, refusing to leave entirely.
Cheng Yi glanced around the gate area, puzzled. Dr. F.S. had said he was at the gate, but there was no sign of him. Furrowing his brow, Cheng Yi asked the guard, "Has anyone else come by aside from this woman and her daughter?"
The guard shook his head. "No one else. Aside from our own staff, only these two have been here today."
"That's odd," Cheng Yi murmured to himself, confusion evident on his face. "He told me he was at the gate already..."