The female doctor visited this ward daily and was very familiar with the situation. "Before Doctor Jin resigned, she was the attending doctor for the maternity patients. She’s still quite responsible and visits every day."
Without much thought, Du Heng headed to the consultation room downstairs with the female doctor. He wanted to see how Xiao Li was doing at her job there.
As they went downstairs, Du Heng saw Jin Juan again when they passed the dical insurance calculation office.
Du Heng frowned as he watched Jin Juan chatting and laughing with the people inside.
This woman has resigned, isn’t she embarrassed to co here? Doesn’t she need to keep looking for a job now?
Although Du Heng was puzzled, he was the Dean, after all, and couldn’t appear too petty. He rely glanced once before turning into the consultation room.
The matter was thus left unresolved. That evening, Du Heng had planned to go shopping with Wu Shengnan after work, but an unexpected phone call forced him to cancel his other plans.
"President Du is here." Li Qingde looked at the smiling Du Heng who had just walked in. "Look at you! I just invited you for a al; why did you bring a gift? Co, co in."
Du Heng entered, put down the gift he had brought, and also showed a beaming smile. "Uncle Li, just call Du Heng. There’s no need for ’President Du.’ It’s too formal; you’re making feel awkward."
Li Qingde chuckled, not making a fuss about the address. "Alright, as long as you, the Big Leader, don’t mind, I’m certainly happy to call you that."
Both n entered the living room, chatting and laughing. A middle-aged woman, slightly older than Du Heng and radiating an intelligent beauty, was busy in the living room.
Seeing Du Heng enter, she quickly greeted him, "Doctor Du, you’re here."
"Sister Li, when did you get back?"
"I’m on compensatory leave; I’ve been back for a few days now." The middle-aged woman was Li Qingde’s daughter and also the editor who handled Du Heng’s submissions. "Please, sit down. Dinner has been ready for a while; we were just waiting for you."
The woman, addressed as Sister Li, ushered Du Heng to a seat then went to the kitchen to bring out the dishes.
They chatted leisurely as they finished dinner.
Once Sister Li finished cleaning up, Li Qingde stood up. He made an excuse about going for a walk, leaving Du Heng and Sister Li alone.
"Sister Li, you wanted to discuss sothing with ?"
Sister Li nodded. "I received the paper you sent to my email box and have briefly reviewed it. Like your previous two papers, it’s rich in data and solid in arguntation—an exceptional article. I’ve forwarded the paper on stroke to other reviewers, and I believe we’ll have their feedback in a few days."
As she spoke, a slight smile touched Sister Li’s lips. "Doctor Du, congratulations on another high-quality paper. It’s a blessing for the field of traditional Chinese dicine to have you."
This praise placed Du Heng on a high pedestal, making him feel proud and honored.
But Du Heng keenly sensed sothing was off.
He imdiately asked cautiously, "Sister Li, if the stroke paper is fine, is there an issue with the one on diabetes insipidus?"
Sister Li shook her head. "No, the paper on diabetes insipidus is of very high quality."
"Then, Sister Li, what are you implying?"
Sister Li refilled Du Heng’s teacup and asked slowly, "I wanted to ask, are you absolutely set on publishing this paper?"
Du Heng frowned slightly, unable to quite grasp what Sister Li was trying to convey.
"Sister Li, since you invited here to discuss this, please treat like one of your own. Speak freely; your little brother here can take it."
"Alright, then I’ll be direct."
Sister Li’s expression turned serious. "Given the level of detail in your paper, it’s undoubtedly a fine piece of work. But I’m afraid it won’t pass the review stage."
She paused slightly before adding, "To be precise, it might not get past certain review experts."
Du Heng didn’t rush to speak, listening intently to Sister Li.
Sister Li continued, "Even if it passes and gets published in the journal, your article will likely only appear in so obscure corner. Forget the top three featured articles; it won’t even make it into the middle three. Moreover, the publication ti could be very long. You need to be ntally prepared for this."
Du Heng remained silent, gazing steadily at Sister Li, his frown deepening.
Sister Li also gave Du Heng a worried glance. "And I must remind you, once your article is published, its search ranking will be extrely low. It will have no priority to speak of."
A glint flashed in Du Heng’s eyes. "The content is fine, the quality is fine, yet it can be throttled right from the review experts, resulting in no online presence... Does that an it’s touched soone’s—cake?"
Instead of directly answering Du Heng’s question, Sister Li posed another one: "In our current dical system, can diabetes be definitively cured?"
"No."
"Then what’s the best current treatnt for diabetes?"
"Insulin injections," Du Heng replied without hesitation.
"And how are they administered?"
"Periodically."
As soon as Du Heng said this, his eyes widened in realization.
Sister Li nodded at him. "You understand now, don’t you? In your paper, while diabetes is also presented as incurable, you’ve shown it can be controlled at an extrely low cost, becoming a condition less prone to relapse."
Du Heng fell silent, and Sister Li beca quiet too.
After a long mont, Du Heng looked up. "I can understand the reaction from journals and online platforms; everyone needs to make a living. But the review experts—why would they act this way?"
Sister Li gazed deeply at Du Heng, thought for a mont, then slowly said, "So large companies, besides developing new drugs for certain diseases themselves, also fund doctors working in these fields.
"These doctors include those in Western dicine as well as traditional Chinese dicine.
"They hope these top industry elites can discover a treatnt plan akin to insulin.
"And this plan needs to have high barriers to entry, be non-replicable, and patented.
"Not like the one you described in your paper: easily replicable, no entry barriers, no patent restrictions, just a prescription using a few inexpensive herbal dicines."
Du Heng paused for a mont, then asked softly, "Would these seniors in the field really do such a thing for money?"
Sister Li shook her head. "That’s why I said earlier there’s a possibility your paper could pass the review." After a brief pause, she added, "And another thing, you might not know the scale of their research funding. The annual research funding they provide to individuals starts at one hundred thousand—in dollars. For so top experts, it’s a guaranteed minimum of ten million."
Du Heng felt a wave of weariness wash over him, and his head drooped.
He had suspected sothing along these lines, but the reality was even worse than he had imagined.
He’d always heard that the strongest fortresses are breached from within, but he’d always dismissed it with a laugh, not taking it seriously.
He never thought he’d encounter such a situation himself, especially one involving influential figures operating from the top down.
This is just traditional Chinese dicine. What about other industries? Are they all like this?
A sudden chill ran down Du Heng’s spine.
Then, he abruptly lifted his head, his eyes shining with a new light. "Sister Li, what if I insist on publishing?"
Sister Li’s eyebrows arched slightly.
She hadn’t expected that after all she had said, Du Heng would still insist on publishing. "Hmm... I believe I’ve already answered that. But let ask you another question. I’m sure you’ve looked up articles published on other platforms before. Do you know what they all have in common?"
Du Heng was montarily stunned; he hadn’t actually paid attention to that.
"Let tell you, articles with low traction get ignored. For popular articles, the comnts underneath are invariably full of people claiming the prescription is fraudulent. Either their family mbers had problems after taking it, or they themselves worsened, or they cite issues with relatives or friends as ’proof.’"
The mont Sister Li finished speaking, Du Heng interjected, "Trolls?"
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