Rebirth 1977 Great Era

Chapter 1139 The Old Man Drops Gold Coins, He Resists to the End (Two Chapters Combined)
Did that old bastard Huang Qiming suddenly get a lot of gold coins?
"Do we need to do the testing now?" Fang Yan asked Comrade Zhu Weiguo.

There are other people waiting in the room. If I go to get the appraisal done now, who knows how long it will take?

Zhu Weiguo said:
"No, we need to tidy it up a bit more before we deliver it to you!"

Upon hearing this, Fang Yan nodded and said:
"Then let's do it tomorrow. I'm free tomorrow afternoon."

Zhu Weiguo said:
"Alright, then I'll leave it to Comrade Fang Yan."

Fang Yan is the most suitable person to do this now; no one else is quite right. So Zhu Weiguo should explain things clearly first.

On the other side, Director Liao's expression had softened, and he said to Fang Yan with approval:

"Thanks to your accurate judgment earlier, you fought a brilliant psychological battle."

"More importantly, you are extremely vigilant! A few words were enough to throw them into disarray. Otherwise, this time he took his time and used covert channels, and it would have been difficult for us to identify and lock onto the key figures in such a short time. We would have had to wait two more days!"

"Now that the suspects have been caught red-handed, the He You family has been found guilty of espionage, colluding with insiders, and attempting to steal state secrets. The chain of evidence is complete, and this time they will definitely pay the price."

Fang Yan nodded. He You had really ruined his reputation in his later years. He had come all the way back just to help Huang Qiming, but in the end, his cleverness backfired.

The Ministry of Health leader patted Fang Yan on the shoulder, "This operation was a great success! You and Comrade He Huiru went deep into dangerous territory under such circumstances without revealing any flaws, which is truly remarkable!"

He was referring to Fang Yan's previous private meeting to confirm He You's attitude, and his composure today, knowing it was a trap, yet still bringing his mother to the appointment on time.

Fang Yan smiled and said to the leader, "You flatter me, leader. I wonder how the people inside are being arranged now?"

Director Liao said:
"Unrelated personnel were gathered together to give statements and sign confidentiality agreements before being released."

After he finished speaking, he looked at the leader of the Ministry of Health, who said:
"Director Liao is an expert in this area, I'll listen to you."

Fang Yan said to Director Liao:
"This matter may have some impact. After all, an overseas Chinese businessman was arrested upon returning to China. It needs to be handled properly to prevent anyone from taking the opportunity to stir up trouble."

If this matter is not handled properly, the number of overseas Chinese businesspeople returning to China will definitely be affected.

Director Liao responded:

"There will definitely be hype, there's nothing we can do about it. Right now, the international discourse power is still in the hands of others, and our voice isn't loud enough... Of course, we still have to speak out."

"Once this matter is resolved, everything will be announced simply, and we will conceal your role in this matter... We'll discuss the specifics later!"

Fang Yan nodded.

Director Liao said:
"Okay, we'll go now. Go in and calm them down, then start taking their statements."

Fang Yan glanced at the door behind him and agreed:
"Ah."

Then Director Liao and the others left, while Fang Yan and Zhu Weiguo went inside.

Zhu Weiguo followed Fang Yan closely, acting as if Fang Yan was the leader.

Fang Yan glanced at him, went to the door, and pushed it open.

When we entered the private room, it was like a frozen wax museum. The eldest uncle's family was frozen in their seats, their faces pale. Jin Wubing was holding a wine glass and looking around. When he saw Fang Yan, he immediately sat up straight.

Yan Yifan pressed himself against the back of the chair, barely daring to breathe, but breathed a slight sigh of relief upon seeing Fang Yan.

The old woman, He Huiru, remained calm, but her aunt, who was standing next to her, was not so calm; her hands, clasped on her knees, trembled slightly.

The eldest uncle and cousin were similar; as soon as they saw Fang Yan, they wanted to quickly ask what the arrangements were and what they should do next.

After my second uncle's family was taken away, a sense of unease and fear filled the banquet.

"What are you all standing there for?" Fang Yan's voice was like a pebble thrown into a still pond.

He pulled out a chair and sat down, casually picking up a piece of cold jellyfish salad:

"The food is still hot. My cousin loves braised sea cucumber with scallions the most. Let's eat it before it gets too cold."

He Shujie's Adam's apple bobbed twice, and he chuckled dryly as he picked up his chopsticks:

“My cousin is right…we can’t waste food…” he said, picking up his chopsticks to grab some food, but the tips of the chopsticks trembled so much that they rattled against the plate.

Fang Yan shook his head speechlessly.

Suddenly, Auntie He grabbed He Huiru's sleeve, her voice trembling with tears:
"Huiru, what exactly is going on..."

She didn't dare speak to Fang Yan, she could only speak to Fang Yan's mother.

The old woman said to her:
"Don't be nervous, you haven't done anything wrong, what's the rush..."

Aunt opened her mouth and looked at Fang Yan, who was eating. Fang Yan was eating slowly and deliberately, without any sense of tension.

My aunt also knew that dialect was probably the one that would determine their life or death.

"Snapped!"

Just then, Fang Yan suddenly slammed the bamboo chopsticks onto the turntable.

The sound wasn't loud, but it sent a shiver down everyone's spine, causing them to involuntarily straighten up.

"My second uncle's family is just cooperating with the investigation into the things they've been in contact with these past few days."

His gaze swept over his uncle's flushed face:
"If you have nothing to hide, why are you panicking?"

The eldest uncle had initially intended to teach Fang Yan a lesson by forcing his family to attend the banquet, but now he was afraid that Fang Yan would hold him accountable.

He trembled under Fang Yan's gaze, as if his back was being crushed by Fang Yan's eyes.

Fang Yan shook her head, then turned to her older cousin, her gaze slightly teasing: "Cousin, you're the one who provides me with firsthand information, so you have even less to worry about."

He Shujie's hands were trembling violently. Hearing this, he was stunned for a moment, then suddenly straightened his back and came to his senses. "That's right! I'm with Fang Yan, aren't I? What's the panic?"

The next second, he grabbed the bottle and poured himself a full glass:
“That’s because… I told you about the weaknesses of He You’s family a long time ago.”

After saying that, he looked at the rest of his family and gestured to them not to panic.

This left my uncle and aunt completely dumbfounded.

Wait... what do you mean? First-hand intelligence?
When did this happen?

The key question is, what happened to him that scared out of his wits just now?

At this moment, Jin Wubing asked Fang Yan:

"So, Brother Fang, what's the plan for next?"

He had nothing to hide; he was just a little flustered because he was frightened by the man with the gun.

Fang Yan waved his hand and said:
"Comrade Zhu, just take the people to make statements. The people you call can do it. Once they're done and there are no problems, they can go home directly."

Then he stood up, gave up his seat, and nodded to Zhu Weiguo.

Zhu Weiguo immediately led two civilian soldiers forward and unfolded a leather notebook.

He greeted the crowd:
"Now we're taking your statements in an orderly fashion. Once you're done, you can sign a confidentiality agreement and leave."

Upon hearing this, the atmosphere in the room finally relaxed.

Because everyone was eager to leave, the subsequent statement taking process was surprisingly swift.

After somewhat incoherently recounting the times and places of his three visits to He You, the eldest uncle nearly dropped his pen while signing the document.

Jin Wubing regained some of his heroic spirit, patting his chest and shouting that "people in the martial arts world value integrity the most," while the fingerprint on the confidentiality agreement was particularly bright red.

As the last document was put into the briefcase, Fang Yan called out to his mother and Yan Yifan:

"Mom, Yifan is leaving."

Yan Yifan breathed a sigh of relief. Today's meal was really exciting. Experiencing the capture of a spy is something some people never get to do in their entire lives. The atmosphere on site was even more frightening than the scenes in the movies.

The old lady, He Huiru, comforted her aunt-in-law, telling her not to talk about it when she got back. Her aunt-in-law nodded vigorously, even if someone asked her to talk about it, she wouldn't dare to tell anyone about what happened today.

Fang Yan continued walking out, pausing slightly as she passed her uncle. She said to him:
"Uncle, get some rest when you get back."

The dialect actually meant to tell him not to be too afraid, otherwise he would have trouble sleeping and get sick.

As a result, my uncle hurriedly nodded, though I don't know if he understood what I meant; in any case, he looked quite frightened.

Fang Yan ignored him and walked out.

The car that was supposed to pick up Fang Yan and the others was already waiting at the door. They got in the car and drove back home.

Because they arrested people not long after the meal started, my mother and Yan Yifan weren't actually full. It was only Fang Yan who ate his fill while they were giving their statements.

After returning home, his mother said she was hungry. Yan Yifan was nervous about attending such a banquet for the first time, so he only ate a few bites. Later, when people came, he was quite frightened. Fang Yan told them to keep eating, but he couldn't eat anymore. Now that he relaxed, his stomach started growling.

The older sister used leftover food from home as a topping and then cooked a bowl of noodles for the two of them.

Because of the confidentiality agreement, what just happened cannot be discussed, at least not with Yan Yifan and his mother. Fang Yan did not sign a confidentiality agreement, but he does not plan to talk about it for the time being. He will tell his family after things have settled down.

……

The next day arrived quickly. Early in the morning, when Fang Yan arrived at Peking Union Medical College Hospital for rounds, someone asked him something:

"Dr. Fang, I heard that some overseas Chinese businessmen were taken away from the Yanjing Hotel last night?"

"Who told you that?" Fang Yan asked.

Then he heard the other person say:

“Last night, someone went out for a walk after dinner and saw a military vehicle enter the hotel.”

"Later, I saw someone being led away with a hood over their head," Fang Yan said to them.

"You should ask Director Liao about this; I don't know."

The patient then stated:
"Oh, how dare we ask him? What if there's some policy change from above? We trust you, so please help us find out!"

Judging from the dialect, this is something we really need to take seriously. We don't want to create a climate of fear, as many of these investors are Taiwanese who went abroad and then came back to invest, and they're all afraid of being held accountable here.

I'm very nervous.

So Fang Yan comforted the patient, telling him that as far as he knew, the policy had definitely not changed, and he would immediately go and inquire about it.

Then I quickly called Director Liao and told him about the situation.

Director Liao told Fang Yan over the phone that he would immediately send someone to reassure the people here, and also told him to act as usual and not to make the patients and their families nervous.

Fang Yan agreed, and then everything proceeded as before.

Director Liao and his team quickly came to visit the people here and calmed them down. Fang Yan will continue to treat patients, but fewer people came to watch today.

He You, Huang Qiming, He Jingwei, and He Dong all did not come.

Jin Wubing, on the other hand, was particularly proactive today, arriving very early, as if he had completely forgotten about yesterday's events.

Even those in the dialect were impressed by his composure.

Fang Yan needed to see a doctor in the morning, and Isabella Dupont and Li Chengzhu were about to leave by plane, so Lao Hu had to go see them off. He also brought a handwritten gift from Fang Yan, which was framed by experts from the Palace Museum and was quite precious.

After seeing the patient in the morning, the things from Comrade Zhu's side were delivered.

The two leather suitcases contained traditional Chinese medicine tools, some handwritten notes, notebooks, and a variety of other miscellaneous books.

They started categorizing the dialects, and then discovered that Huang Qiming and He You's boxes contained quite a few good things.

It really did explode with gold coins.

Huang Qiming looked through Fang Yan's box and found that, besides his own notes, there was also a book he had obtained from somewhere called "The Processing of Chinese Herbal Medicines" written in Fang Yan's name.

This item is still a limited edition, and Fang Yan has no idea how he got his hands on it.

In addition, there are three seals in a rosewood box on the right. The largest one is engraved with "Baohetang Collection". The ink is a rare mixture of cinnabar and pearl powder, which makes the paper red with a hint of gold. The other two are personal name seals. One is engraved with Huang Qiming's name, while the other is engraved with "Nanyang Guest". The inscription on the side reads "Autumn of Jiaxu Year in Penang", which is obviously his private seal from his early years.

On the left side of the box lay an ivory-white paper cutter, carved with a lotus scroll pattern. The blade gleamed with a dull silver light, and a faint medicinal fragrance could be smelled when brought closer. Fang Yan finally discovered that it was made of pangolin scales and silver. It felt heavy in his hand, and the blade still bore the fine marks of cutting medicinal paper.

After searching high and low, they even found a hidden compartment at the bottom of a box.

This completely baffled Zhu Weiguo, because he hadn't even noticed that inside, the two of them found a stack of encrypted telegram drafts and a black leather notebook.

The notebook contained transaction details recorded in a mix of Chinese and English. Several pages repeatedly featured codes such as "tea tree," "old mountain," and "green seedlings," followed by numbers whose meanings were unclear. It was clearly not an ordinary tea transaction, but rather seemed to be some kind of coded message for intelligence transmission.

"Looks like we've discovered something amazing again?" Fang Yan handed the item to Zhu Weiguo.

Zhu Weiguo said to Fang Yan:

"They're not being honest..."

Fang Yan continued flipping through the pages and saw another palm-sized silver medicine jar inside. The bottom of the jar was engraved with the mark of a London silversmith. The walls of the jar were as thin as cicada wings. He wondered how it was made. There was nothing inside.

Then there's He You's stuff.

Inside, there were even some of the He family's secret pediatric prescriptions handwritten by him.

The secret recipe was bound into a book on yellowed Xuan paper, with the title "He Family Pediatric Secrets" on the cover. The handwriting was steady and firm, clearly written when he was in his prime.

As I flipped through the pages of the prescriptions, I discovered that they were specifically for treating difficult and complicated pediatric diseases. Some of the prescriptions were ones I had seen in the He family's secret recipes, while others were ones I had never seen before.

"Qingzhang Dingjing San" treats infantile convulsions caused by tropical dysentery. It is particularly effective for children in hot and humid regions who experience high fever, convulsions, irritability, and vomiting due to dysentery, especially for severe cases accompanied by skin rashes and drowsiness.

Using "Guojianglongteng" as the main medicine, combined with artemisia annua and arecoline, it breaks through the traditional approach of using only Coptis chinensis and Scutellaria baicalensis to treat dysentery, and takes into account both "clearing miasma" and "stopping convulsions".

According to my dialect, this seems to be a vine unique to Southeast Asia. It is cool in nature and can help relieve rashes and detoxify.

The He family's secret recipe was pieced together by several generations of He family members, and this person must have spent time in Southeast Asia.

The most unique ingredient is "bird's nest ash," which is the carbonized residue from calcined bird's nest. It is said to both strengthen the intestines and stop diarrhea, and neutralize the bitter and cold nature of vine-like medicinal materials to avoid harming the child's spleen and stomach. This sounds similar to the idea of ​​using hearth soil to stop diarrhea in the north, but due to the availability of local resources, precious medicinal materials are used instead. This shows the medical style of the person who wrote this prescription in Southeast Asia in his early years.

There is also "Citrus Lemongrass Digestive Ointment" which treats infantile malnutrition accompanied by emaciation and abdominal distension.

It is mainly used to treat children with malnutrition who have long-term indigestion, sallow complexion, emaciation, and distended abdomen. It is especially suitable for "damp-heat type malnutrition" caused by improper diet, such as excessive consumption of fruits, oily seafood, etc.

The medication is unique in that it abandons the traditional chicken gizzard and medicated leaven, and instead uses lemongrass root from Southeast Asia to regulate qi and eliminate food stagnation. It has its own fragrance and is easily accepted by children. When combined with stir-fried radish seeds, it can both remove damp heat and promote digestion.

In addition, "coconut shell charcoal," which is calcined coconut shell charcoal, is added, ground into powder, mixed with honey to form a paste, and applied to the child's navel area to help eliminate stagnation through transdermal absorption.

This method of "internal regulation plus external application" combines the experience of herbal external treatment in Southeast Asia and is similar to the concept of "umbilical therapy" in traditional Chinese medicine.

In addition to these, there is also the "Seven Treasures Cough-Relieving Decoction" for children with whooping cough, which is the kind of cough that makes children's faces turn red, their noses and eyes run, and they even vomit. The prescription says that it is especially effective for children who cough badly at night and have difficulty sleeping.

Finally, there is the "Pearl Opening the Mouth Formula" for treating children who refuse to eat in the later stages of febrile diseases. It is mainly used to treat children who have febrile diseases such as measles and chickenpox, and who experience loss of appetite, dry mouth and chapped lips, lethargy, or even refusal to eat or drink after the high fever subsides.

The uniqueness of these secret recipes lies in the fact that they not only retain the core of traditional Chinese medicine's "differentiation of syndromes and treatment" but also incorporate a large number of local medicinal materials and folk remedies from Southeast Asia, and even reflect the medicine-using habits of Southeast Asian ethnic groups.

Fang Yan turned to the last page and found a line of small print in the corner: "In the year of Dingchou, I saved the young son of the Dutch consulate in Kuala Lumpur, and that is how I obtained the letter."

The year of Dingchou?
According to the dialect, it should be around 1937.

He was stunned for a moment. Could it be He You's own prescription?

Considering that he mentioned that when he first went abroad, he did indeed go to Southeast Asia before eventually going to England, it seems that this is indeed possible.

Next, Fang Yan looked at the other items in his box. Of course, they weren't as luxurious as Huang Qiming's, but there was still a set of needles that were quite special.

It was a palm-sized ox-horn box. Inside, there were more than a dozen smooth needles with spiral patterns engraved on the ends and the needles as thin as hair. There was also a line of words on the box: "Ox-tail Needles".

Fang Yan picked up a needle, feeling the warmth of its body through his fingertips, clearly from years of handling. However, he hadn't had anyone test it and didn't know what was so special about it. All these things had to be handed over to the authorities, and all Fang Yan could do now was to memorize the contents of the manuscript inside.

With the help of Fang Yan and Comrade Zhu Weiguo, all the items were examined and a list was written down.

Then Zhu Weiguo planned to take the things back.

Fang Yan went out to see him off and inquired about the progress of the interrogation.

Zhu Weiguo said to Fang Yan:

"The enemy is tougher than we imagined. They are still resisting, claiming to be British and that they are just trying to do business with us through normal channels. As for contacting people here, it's because they did have contact with people abroad before and only know them."

"Very cunning!" Fang Yan nodded and said.

Huang Qiming has long been active in British high society as a lecturer in Chinese medicine at the University of Liverpool, and considers himself an "international elite".

After his arrest, he deliberately emphasized his "British identity," which was actually an attempt to create a false impression of diplomatic privilege by using the aura of "overseas Chinese businessman" and "scholar" in order to exert pressure through his identity and evade legal sanctions.

Zhu Weiguo said:
“This guy seems to have made a plan. He knows the preferential policies for overseas Chinese businessmen in China over the years, and he also knows that we are worried that the arrest of overseas Chinese businessmen will affect the investment environment. He thought that we would give him a break because of international public opinion, so he insisted on the excuse of “normal business cooperation”.

"Now that we have the encrypted telegram draft and the cipher notebook, he should confess. We still have to thank Comrade Fang Yan!"

He waved his hand dismissively, clearly indicating that the other person was just being polite, and said:

"Hey, that's all because you wanted me to do the authentication, you didn't actually do the inspection."

He asked in dialect:

"What about He You's family? Are they also putting up resistance?"

Zhu Weiguo said:
“That’s right. Although they were quite panicked at first, they later started to resist and play games with us, just like Huang Qiming. We originally planned to wear them down, but now it seems that we won’t have to go through that much trouble.”

That's interesting... They all seem to have received training.

It seems they're not entirely a makeshift team; it's just that they haven't been properly trained yet.

However, such professional matters should be left to professionals. Fang Yan should not interfere and just wait for the results. It's just a matter of time for them now. They are probably thinking about how foreign countries will help them.

However, given the nature of capitalists, if they go bankrupt, Baohetang can simply be taken over by someone else; they might even be hoping for their demise.

Sometimes, the plots in movies aren't actually made up.

"By the way, how did my second uncle's family handle it?" Fang Yan asked Zhu Weiguo.

Zhu Weiguo said:
"We're afraid they'll cause trouble, so we'll make them stay in a specific place for a few days for now."

After saying that, he remembered that this was Fang Yan's second uncle, so he said:

"However, I think that if the education department signs a confidentiality agreement, they should be able to release him."

Fang Yan shook his head and said:
"Let's follow the rules. Since Director Liao ordered the arrest, let's wait until this is over before releasing them. Let's scare them for a few days first, so they'll behave better when they come out."

When Zhu Weiguo heard Fang Yan say this, he felt that Fang Yan's awareness was really high...

It's a pity that those people were still accusing them of using dialects and retaliating against them yesterday... They really have no sense of propriety...

After seeing Zhu Weiguo off, Fang Yan returned home and began to write down all the prescriptions she had previously noted down. Regardless of whether these were He You's prescriptions or not, these were all the results of today's work. She could use them to study local medicinal herbs in Southeast Asia in the future, and perhaps even gain some commercial value. This would be a way for He You to compensate her.

Time flies, and several days have passed in the blink of an eye.

June passed and July arrived. At this time, the notices for the re-examination were also sent out jointly by the school and the research institute. The top candidates who passed the preliminary examination from all over the country began to flock to the capital.

PS: The basic chapter of 6000 words is now complete. There will be an extra chapter later.

(End of this chapter)