Mystery Detective of the Steam World

Chapter 489 A Tumultuous Time
As Li Wei walked out of the research institute, he looked at Annie beside him and gave a wry smile.

"A mix of emotions, right?"

"yes………………"

In response to Li Wei's question, the latter nodded with deep emotion.

"She really reminds me of myself a long time ago. Back then, I thought the same thing, but... unfortunately, I don't have her background."

Livy did not refute this; it was simply the truth. Anne gained the Queen's trust for two reasons: firstly, her research aligned well with the Empire's needs, and secondly, she had Livy's endorsement. This provided her with considerable political support, which she had to utilize.

Anne must understand that the Queen's appointment of her as her representative is not merely a nominal one.

Many people believe that power is corrupt, and that anything involving power becomes tainted. But in reality, power is everywhere, omnipresent. From clothing, food, housing, and transportation to science and entertainment, there is almost no aspect of life untouched by its influence.

The supply and price of goods require the allocation of power. The same applies to the cultural and entertainment industry; only those films, television programs, and music that meet the requirements are allowed to be released, while those that do not are naturally prohibited.

Even scientific research is no exception. Don't assume that scholars live in ivory towers, detached from worldly concerns—that's like cultivating immortality. The reality is, as Li Wei said, that funding is limited, and the funds allocated to scientific research are equally limited. This means that scholars in all disciplines must fight tooth and nail for these limited funds.

Of course, if you have plenty of money, whether you prefer studying butterflies or penguins is entirely your own choice. But if you rely on government funding, then you must follow the direction mandated by the government. Even within the same discipline, scholars with differing theories can fight tooth and nail over this.

To give an example, if the Empire were to allocate funds for criminal investigations and testing, Li Wei would naturally hope that this money would be used for research projects he considers scientific and reasonable, such as fingerprints, footprints, bloodstains, and the composition of murder weapons.

However, if an expert were to suggest that psychic abilities should be used to solve crimes, Li Wei would definitely reject such a suggestion outright. He believes this method is neither scientific nor rigorous, and is utterly ridiculous. For example, how can you guarantee that the spirit you channel is indeed the victim, and how can you guarantee that the victim will tell the truth? Perhaps the victim will even lie to protect the perpetrator?

The other party would obviously feel that Li Wei's approach relied too heavily on physical evidence. What if the physical evidence was forged, or the evidence itself was fabricated? Wouldn't that clear the real culprit's name? In comparison, wouldn't it be more acceptable for everyone to let the deceased come forward and name the murderer?

So you see, even though both sides aimed to improve the empire's criminal investigation technology, their directions were completely opposite. Li Wei naturally wouldn't give a single penny to the charlatan who promoted psychic abilities, and the other party would also think Li Wei was a lackey covering for those in power, since destroying evidence would allow the murderer to escape justice.

In this situation, it's a matter of life and death; there's no middle ground. Everyone wants their theory to be mainstream, and everyone thinks other people's theories are flawed—if they weren't flawed, wouldn't everyone be in no position to create their own theories?

Some people ask, "Can't we do both physical evidence analysis and psychic exploration at the same time?"

Sure, but the problem is—the Empire can only contribute one sum of money, not two.

All the conflicts in the world stem from this. If resources were plentiful enough for everyone to do what they want, there would be far fewer conflicts.

Unfortunately, this is obviously impossible.

There's always a limited amount of cake.

Even if there were an unlimited supply of cakes, it wouldn't mean that everyone would want others to have cakes too.

Take Li Wei for example. He thinks that doctors who use mercury to treat diseases should be sent to prison for murder. As for giving them money to research mercury treatments? In Li Wei's view, that would be a waste.

Ideas, stances, and viewpoints.

All sorts of conflicts are everywhere.

Anne from Livy's world doesn't quite understand this principle, but Anne from the other world clearly does.

To put it bluntly, those researchers whose research directions differed from Anne's were using Imperial funds for their own research, and in reality, their interests did not align with Anne's. If Anne succeeded, their gains would be minimal. But if Anne failed, their losses would be equally small. At most, the research institute would be disbanded, and they could still use their research, funded by the Empire, to gain some fame and profit.

But the research institute failed, and Annie took the blame for everything.

That's why every big shot holds onto power so tightly. Although Annie isn't a big shot yet, she still needs to learn how to use power.

However, Li Wei had no idea what Anne would become once she tasted the sweetness of power.

After all, many people become different people once they get involved with power.

This is probably what another Anne is worried about as well.

“I think Anne should be fine, don’t worry about her, Miss Delint.”

Incidentally, after leaving the research institute, the Anne from the other world asked Levi to change how he addressed her, since they were both named Anne, making it difficult to tell them apart. While calling her by her last name, Darwin, wasn't out of the question, Levi just felt awkward calling a beautiful girl Darwin… This wasn't some kind of gender-bent world…

So in the end, Li Wei compromised and called the other person by their middle name.

"I hope so. I'm not that interested in power now, but I know that sometimes power is necessary to achieve one's goals."

"indeed."

Li Wei did not object to this, which is one of the reasons why he has been moving closer to the official line since he came to this world.

After all, power is very important in many situations.

He thought Anne should be able to come up with a solution.

A week had passed since Li Wei visited the research institute.

Today, the researchers at the institute received a notice to attend a meeting.

"Professor Franklin, what do you think is the significance of this meeting?"

Walking down the corridor, a researcher curiously asked Professor Franklin, who was standing in front of him. They had been at the institute for a while now, and Anne was someone who didn't particularly like meetings. She usually resolved most things privately with other research groups. Strictly speaking, this was the first time Anne had called for all research group leaders to attend a meeting.

"Who knows?"

Professor Franklin, who was quite overweight, clearly disagreed with this.

"Perhaps that young girl was just relaying messages for the royal family. Maybe the royal family is unhappy with her and wants to remove her from her position."

At this point, Professor Franklin chuckled, and the researcher next to him quickly chimed in.

"In that case, Professor Franklin, you might also be able to take charge of this research institute."

"Haha, maybe so. Of course, there are other strong competitors as well."

Hearing the researcher's flattery, Professor Franklin smiled. In his view, this was a suitable choice. As a scholar who had been renowned in the Imperial biological community for many years, he shouldn't stoop to working under that young girl. Being the head of this research institute was a very suitable role for him...

Lost in thought, Professor Franklin entered the conference room. He saw Anne sitting in the head seat, her petite figure seemingly mismatched with the large chair. Professor Franklin inwardly scoffed and sat down in a chair some distance away from her.

Soon, the heads of other project teams also entered. Some were expressionless, while others simply nodded to Anne. Seeing this, Professor Franklin felt even more smug. Clearly, these big names in the field of biology weren't very enthusiastic about Anne, indicating that in their view, Anne was indeed not suitable for the position.

I should figure out how to make things work out next...

Just as Professor Franklin was pondering, Anne's voice rang out.

"Now that everyone is here, let's begin today's meeting."

Anne's voice was very calm and indifferent.

“I’ve reviewed the reports from each research group and found that their progress is behind schedule. Do you have anything to say about this?” Upon hearing Anne’s question, all the leaders paused for a moment, then Anne quietly looked at Professor Franklin.

“Especially Professor Franklin, I need your explanation.”

"explain?"

Professor Franklin frowned at Anne's question.

"What's there to explain? The analysis and research of dragon blood is extremely complex, and the dragon blood is preserved with very strict measures. Every time we go, it takes us a lot of time to obtain even a small sample. Of course, I know that some idiots have secretly eaten dragon blood before, but this is too strict, a bit of an overreaction!"

"Yeah, that's way too exaggerated."

“It takes a lot of time just to take samples each time.”

Upon hearing Professor Franklin's complaint, the other officials also spoke up, clearly expressing their dissatisfaction with the strict guarding of the dragon's corpse.

Annie remained silent as always, like a puppet. An unresponsive puppet obviously wouldn't bring much joy to the group, so soon everyone stopped talking. Only then did Annie continue speaking.

"So you're admitting that your research isn't finished yet?"

“That’s right, if it weren’t so strict, I might have been able to finish even faster…”

"In that case, your research group is no longer needed to work on this project."

But before Professor Franklin could finish speaking, Anne interrupted him. Franklin paused for a moment, looking at Anne with surprise.

"what do you mean?"

“I have completed this project and submitted the report to the Royal Society of Biology.”

Anne looked calmly at Professor Franklin.

"In other words, the research project on 'the tissue composition and efficacy of dragon's blood' has come to an end."

"This, this is impossible!"

Professor Franklin slammed his fist on the table and stood up, glaring angrily at Anne.

"How could you possibly do that? You, you, you... That's right, you must have stolen our report! You submitted it as your own, didn't you!"

Franklin clenched his teeth, staring at Anne. Actually, his research group had already completed most of the work, but to teach this young girl a lesson, he had temporarily halted the remaining research and switched to his own.

"But Professor Franklin, you said earlier that your research is not yet complete because you cannot obtain enough dragon blood samples."

Despite Professor Franklin's roar, Anne remained calm and composed, as if she were completely deaf to his outburst.

“I…I…”

Professor Franklin was taken aback by Anne's question.

"I've actually finished most of it, yes, I've finished most of the work!"

"So do you have any evidence?"

"Of course!"

At this moment, Professor Franklin found Anne utterly repulsive. He was convinced that this little girl had somehow stolen his research findings and published them as her own. And thankfully… he was prepared!
Franklin turned his head and looked at the researcher behind him.

"Go and get that report. It's in the safe by my bedside!"

"Yes."

The researcher took the key from Professor Franklin, turned and left the conference room, while Professor Franklin glared at Anne.

"You think you're so great, little girl? Don't think you can get away with just stealing my report. Let me tell you, I've been waiting for this! Actually, I have another report, which I've kept in the safe by my bedside. Only I have the key! You didn't expect that, did you!"

"…………………"

Anne remained expressionless in the face of Professor Franklin's words, while the others began to whisper among themselves. After all, publicly accusing someone of plagiarizing academic work was a serious crime, and they were curious to see how Anne would respond.

A moment later, the researcher came running back, panting, with a brown envelope. Professor Franklin opened the envelope, looked inside, and then proudly displayed the report inside.

"Everyone, please look, this is my report! As you can see, my report is almost finished!"

As he spoke, Professor Franklin handed the report to the person in charge next to him, who took it, looked at it, and then passed it on to others. Just as Professor Franklin said, a lot of data had been recorded on it, and it was obviously close to completion, just as he said.

He looked at Annie with a cold smile and spoke.

"Well, little girl? What do you have to say now?"

Anne reached out and picked up another document from the table.

"I have nothing to say. This is a copy of the report I submitted to the Royal Biological Society. Please take a look."

Soon, the person in charge passed the two reports around for review, and as they read, Professor Franklin noticed something was amiss. These people's reactions—they seemed quite different from what he had expected?
Why are they looking at me with such suspicion?

"I'd like to see what you've written!"

Professor Franklin was also flustered at this moment, and he grabbed Anne's report and began to read it carefully.

But the more Professor Franklin read, the more horrified he became, because Anne's report was more complete than his own, and even touched on many aspects that he had not yet begun to study.

Everyone here is an expert in the field, which means that Anne's report is not based on a copy of Professor Franklin's research, but on her own research findings!

"This study took me a week. I extracted the dragon's blood sample according to regulations, and the entire process was strictly documented."

Anne stared at Professor Franklin, her expression unchanged, her tone calm, but the content struck him like a heavy hammer.

"And you have spent several months... Professor Franklin, I believe you are not capable enough to conduct this research, therefore I hereby announce that your project team is hereby disbanded, and you and your researchers may leave the institute."

As Anne spoke, several fully armed soldiers entered, grabbed Professor Franklin, who was now limp and speechless, his eyes wide open. He was then dragged away by the soldiers.

For a moment, the meeting room fell into a deathly silence.

Annie then looked away and gazed at the crowd again.

"Now, let's talk about the progress of each project team."

(End of this chapter)