LRAB Chapter 10 The Fiancée's Pharmacy Laboratory
Chapter 10 The Fiancée's Pharmacy Laboratory
Chen Zijun leaned back in the leather chair in the study on the second floor of the headquarters, with a series of pledges of allegiance laid out in front of him.
To be precise, it was a series of visiting cards, banners, and pledges of loyalty sent overnight by prominent figures from all walks of life in Shanghai.
He casually picked up a gold-embossed poster and glanced at it.
"Zhang Xiaolian, Vice President of the Shanghai Chamber of Commerce, along with his colleagues, congratulates Commander Chen on eliminating the traitors and restoring order to Shanghai. We are also presenting a gift of three thousand taels of silver as a token of our appreciation."
Chen Zijun scoffed and tossed it aside.
These people were secretly fraternizing with Huang Qiushan just two days ago, but in the blink of an eye they've become righteous figures.
It doesn't matter.
Dogs fight, and everyone gets a mouthful of fur. Use what you can, and deal with what you can't later.
He picked up the coffee on the table, took a sip, and glanced at the system panel in his mind.
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[Unlimited Pay-to-Win System]
Current funds: £1,892,347 (+£1 per second)
Unlocked technologies: Sulfonamide synthesis formula (new!), MG08/18 machine gun mass production blueprints, Krupp heavy artillery production line
可购买清单：105毫米榴弹炮连（50万英镑）、容克运输机×3（80万英镑）、潜艇图纸（120万英镑）
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It's nearly two million pounds.
Chen Zijun's lips curled up slightly.
He knew in his past life that money only has value when it is spent.
Especially when it's spent on the blade.
He pushed the pile of pledges aside, stood up, and straightened his uniform.
"Let's go. To the medical research institute."
The adjutant outside the door immediately saluted.
"Yes!"
Twenty minutes later.
At the border of the French Concession, in front of an inconspicuous two-story red brick building.
This is Cao Qingdi's medical research institute.
Despite being called a research institute, it was actually just a converted old foreign firm warehouse. A wooden sign hung at the entrance, with the six characters "Gongji Medical Laboratory" written crookedly in calligraphy.
When Chen Zijun got out of the car, he almost thought he had gone to the wrong place.
"This is too shabby." He frowned.
Pushing open the creaking wooden door, a pungent smell of medicine hit me.
The cramped laboratory was filled with bottles and jars, and several old microscopes sat on a crooked wooden table. Water was leaking from the corner, dripping incessantly.
Cao Qingdi was wearing a faded cotton cheongsam with a patched lab coat over it, and she was squatting on the ground heating a test tube with an alcohol lamp.
Her hair was casually tied back, with a few stray strands falling across her forehead, all damp with sweat.
She was so focused that she didn't even notice Chen Zijun walking up behind her.
Until Chen Zijun deliberately coughed.
"Little Chen... Commander Chen?!" Cao Qingdi suddenly stood up, almost knocking over the test tube rack behind her.
She quickly steadied the lab equipment, hurriedly wiped the medicine stains off her hands, and subconsciously tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear.
"Why did you suddenly come? You didn't even tell me beforehand!"
"If I told you, wouldn't you have to clean this place three times over?" Chen Zijun looked around, his brows furrowing even deeper. "I approved 100,000 pounds for you, and this is all you bought?"
Cao Qingdi's face flushed slightly.
"I...spent most of my money on raw materials for pharmaceuticals and equipment ordered from the US. The equipment is still at sea; they say it'll take more than forty days to cross the Suez Canal. This room is a temporary rental; it's cheap."
"Cheap?" Chen Zijun glanced at the leak in the corner. "Cheap enough to leak?"
Cao Qingdi lowered her head, her voice becoming softer.
"No, it's just that it gets a little bit rainy on rainy days..."
Chen Zijun took a deep breath.
Come on.
He turned and sat down in the only intact chair in the lab, took a brown paper envelope from the inner pocket of his military uniform, and placed it on the table.
"Take a look at this first."
Cao Qingdi picked up the envelope with a puzzled look and opened it.
Inside was a thick stack of handwritten technical documents.
The cover has a line of German text: Sulfanilamid——SyntheseundProduktionsverfahren.
Cao Qingdi's fingers trembled slightly.
She quickly flipped to the first page, her eyes scanning over the densely packed chemical structural formulas and process flow diagrams.
Then, her breathing became rapid.
"This is……"
She looked up, and her eyes changed.
That usually gentle and calm gaze seemed to be ignited at this moment.
"This is the complete sulfonamide synthesis route?! All the process parameters for p-aminobenzenesulfonamide? Even the catalytic conditions and mass production temperature control are clearly stated?!"
"You brought this back from Germany?!"
Chen Zijun remained unfazed.
"I got it from an old professor at the University of Berlin. It cost me a lot of money."
Nonsense.
This is the "sulfonamide formula" technology package he unlocked using the system; it originally cost £150,000. Buying it is a steal.
But he couldn't tell anyone.
Cao Qingdi was completely absorbed in it.
She squatted on the ground, spread the technical documents on the cement floor, and flipped through them page by page, muttering to herself.
"For the reduction of the azo intermediate, which isn't crucial, they actually used tin powder and hydrochloric acid! The purity is at least three percentage points higher than the iron powder route I previously envisioned!"
"And this mass production process, a continuous flow hydrogenation reactor? My God... this is at least five years ahead of all the literature currently published in The Lancet, no, ten years!"
She suddenly looked up at Chen Zijun, her eyes slightly red.
"Xiao Chen, do you know what you gave me?"
"Once this product is successfully mass-produced, China will become the first country in the world to have its own production capacity for sulfonamide drugs! Exports alone will earn tens of millions of pounds annually!"
"More importantly..." her voice choked with emotion, "from then on, Chinese soldiers wounded on the battlefield no longer had to wait to die from a small, infected wound!"
Chen Zijun looked at the woman in front of him, who was so excited that she was about to cry, and his heart stirred slightly.
In my previous life's history textbooks, sulfonamide drugs saved the lives of millions of wounded soldiers during World War II.
In this timeline, it will appear in China fifteen years earlier.
"Stop crying." His tone was indifferent, but a slight smile played on his lips. "What's the use of crying? I'll give you money, I'll give you skills, I'll give you people. All you have to do is one thing."
"Make it."
Cao Qingdi wiped her eyes abruptly, took a deep breath, and nodded vigorously.
"I will definitely make it!"
She hesitated for a moment, then solemnly bowed ninety degrees to Chen Zijun.
"Chen Zijun. Cao Qingdi has dedicated his life to the cause of Chinese medicine, even at the cost of his life. I will repay this kindness with my entire life... no, with my whole life!"
Chen Zijun raised his hand to support her shoulder, helping her to stand up straight.
"Don't be so formal. You're my fiancée. If I don't help you, who will I help?"
Cao Qingdi's face flushed red to the roots of her ears.
"You...who is your fiancée! That was arranged by your elders..."
"Doesn't the decision made by the elders in the family count?" Chen Zijun raised an eyebrow.
"I guess... I guess so, but you can't just say it to my face like that..."
Cao Qingdi lowered her head in embarrassment, her fingers twisting the hem of her lab coat incessantly.
Chen Zijun rarely showed a smile.
£1.89 million for a future queen of a pharmaceutical empire.
cost-effective.
It's a bargain.
At a time when the atmosphere was delicate.
"Knock knock knock!"
There was a rapid knocking on the laboratory's wooden door.
"Reporting to the young marshal!"
Shen Li's anxious voice came from outside the door.
Chen Zijun's expression instantly changed, returning to its usual coldness.
"Come in."
Shen Li pushed open the door and entered.
This chief of staff, who was usually as cold and stern as an iron fist, showed a rare hint of urgency on his face at this moment.
He snapped to attention and saluted, his voice low but his speech rapid.
"Young Marshal! Something terrible has happened!"
"The Krupp heavy artillery production line equipment shipped from Britain arrived at the outer harbor of Wusongkou this morning. However, it was blocked in the channel by three merchant ships belonging to Sassoon & Co. as soon as it reached the anchorage!"
Chen Zijun's eyes suddenly turned cold.
"Go on."
Shen Li gritted his teeth.
"That's not all. The Green Gang dockworkers' union at the Shiliupu Wharf also jumped out, claiming they received orders from 'above' to go on a full strike. They said they wouldn't unload any cargo belonging to the Chen family's army. They demanded we hand over 30% of the dock's loading and unloading profits, otherwise we wouldn't be able to get a single nail ashore!"
"The Sassoon family and the Green Gang have joined forces?" Chen Zijun picked up his coffee cup and slowly took a sip.
"Yes." Shen Li nodded. "Intelligence indicates that Abdullah, the Sassoon family's butler, secretly met with Huang Heshang's agent last night."
Cao Qingdi's expression changed slightly as she listened from the side.
Sassoon? That's the wealthiest Jewish financial family in the entire Far East! They control nearly 40% of Shanghai's shipping and port businesses!
Needless to say, the Green Gang was the largest underground force in Shanghai, and all the coolies on the docks were their people.
When these two forces join forces, any normal person would think twice.
She glanced at Chen Zijun's expression instinctively.
I thought he would be somewhat wary.
However, Chen Zijun simply put down his coffee cup, picked up a cigarette from the table, and put it in his mouth.
Light the match.
He took a deep breath and exhaled a puff of white mist.
"Shen Li."
"exist!"
Chen Zijun stubbed out his cigarette in the ashtray, stood up, and his military boots scraped against the cement floor with a harsh screech.
"Call Zang Keping."
"Move the newly arrived German-equipped artillery regiment to the Shiliupu Wharf."
"I want to hear cannon fire in half an hour."