Rejecting Tsinghua and Peking Universities: I Will Lead Harbin Institute of Technology to World Lead

The third month at the Azure Dragon Laboratory.

The underground laboratory is devoid of seasonal changes; in its constant temperature and humidity, the only sounds are the low hum of instruments and the clatter of keyboards. But the gradually slowing curves on the research progress chart reveal that the project is entering its most challenging and difficult phase.

The initial smooth progress came to an abrupt halt after entering the actual verification stage of human gene editing.

"Chief Engineer Lin, the seventh batch of transgenic mice has shown abnormal differentiation." At 2 a.m., Academician Zhang's video call woke Lin Feng from his brief sleep. "We injected the optimized vector, expecting it to only edit specific genes in liver cells, but the autopsy found... editing traces in brain tissue and cardiomyocytes as well."

On the holographic screen, fluorescent markers on mouse brain slices were scattered like stars—meaning that the gene-editing vector had breached the blood-brain barrier.

Lin Feng was wide awake: "Carrier concentration?"

"Strictly follow the dosage you gave, 0.3 micrograms per gram of body weight."

"Route of administration?"

"Tail vein injection, exactly the same as the previous six batches."

There was a three-second silence.

"Suspend all animal experiments," Lin Feng ordered. "Seal all samples from the seventh batch, including blood, tissue, and excrement. I'm going to the lab immediately."

When he put on his white coat and walked out of the lounge, a dozen or so core researchers had already gathered in the corridor. Everyone's expression was grim—breaking the blood-brain barrier meant the editing vector could potentially enter the central nervous system. In gene therapy, this is one of the most dangerous situations.

"It might be a problem with the carrier particle size." Dr. Wang quickly pulled up the data. "The lipid nanoparticles we're using have an average diameter of 85 nanometers, which theoretically shouldn't be able to cross the blood-brain barrier, unless..."

"Unless the integrity of the blood-brain barrier has been compromised," Lin Feng continued. "Check the physiological records of these mice. Are there any signs of infection? Have they received any other drug treatments?"

"No." The technician in charge of animal management shook his head. "All the mice were born on the same day and are SPF grade. They were raised under completely identical conditions and have not been exposed to any other substances except for the Azure Dragon drug."

This makes things even more complicated.

If it's due to individual differences or operational errors, it's relatively easy to resolve. But if it's caused by the medication itself...

The atmosphere in the laboratory was heavy and oppressive.

This is just the beginning.

Three days later, new problems arose one after another.

"Chief Engineer Lin, an unidentified contamination has appeared in the protein directed evolution culture system." Professor Li's report was concise. "In the thirty-seventh generation of evolution products, the activity of a protease that has never been seen before was detected. It... will degrade our designed gene-editing tools."

"Source of pollution?"

"We've checked every possibility: culture medium, incubator, workbench, lab technician... all negative. This protease seems to have appeared out of thin air."

A week later, an even stranger thing happened.

"In the telomere repair experiment group, older mice showed...over-repair." Academician Zhao, a telomere expert, sounded puzzled. "According to the design, telomerase should only be activated when telomeres shorten to a critical value. But now, in all the mice that received the drug, the telomere length is continuously increasing, exceeding the average of young mice."

On the projection screen, the curve representing telomere length climbed upwards like a runaway rocket.

Excessive repair means an exponential increase in the risk of cancer.

"Stop all tests on the telomere repair module." Lin Feng rubbed his temples. "Conduct a comprehensive analysis to determine which control element is malfunctioning."

However, problems continue to emerge.

In the eighth week, the immune optimization team discovered that while the drug was clearing cancer cells, it also began to attack normal cells—albeit to a very mild degree, but this did happen.

In week nine, the physical enhancement group reported an increase in muscle strength in mice, accompanied by the side effect of myocardial hypertrophy.

In the tenth week, the most disturbing phenomenon emerged: the two mice that had been receiving low doses of the drug for an extended period began to exhibit altered behavioral patterns. They no longer followed typical rodent social behaviors and began to display autistic-like characteristics—avoiding their own kind, repeating stereotyped behaviors, and showing abnormal sensitivity to sound and light.

"Gene editing... may have affected genes related to neural development." The neurobiologist turned pale.

Problems accumulated like a snowball.

Lin Feng stood in front of the circular screen in the central laboratory, looking at the flashing alarm indicators. Red represented serious problems, yellow represented potential risks, and green represented safe zones.

At this moment, almost no green can be seen on the screen.

Seventy-nine top experts, after three months of hard work, seemed to have hit an invisible wall. It wasn't a technological bottleneck, but the complexity and mystery of life itself—the human genome has three billion base pairs and millions of regulatory elements, and the network of interactions between them is so complex that it exceeds the scope of current scientific understanding.

"Everyone," Lin Feng's voice rang out in the silent laboratory, "we've encountered a real problem."

Everyone looked at him.

"The design concept of the Azure Dragon drug is sound, and the technical approach is sound." He pulled up the drug's molecular structure diagram. "The problem lies in our insufficient understanding of the human body as a complex system. Gene editing isn't like repairing a machine, replacing one part while the rest continues to function normally. It's a network where a change in one part affects the whole."

Academician Zhang gave a wry smile: "Chief Engineer Lin, you mean...?"

"We need deeper insights." Lin Feng turned around. "Routine lab operations will be temporarily overseen by Academician Zhang. I need to... go into seclusion for a period of time for research."

"Seclusion?"

"Hmm." Lin Feng didn't explain. "The specific time is yet to be determined. During this period, all experiments are suspended, but data analysis continues. Compile all the abnormal data from the past three months into a booklet, and wait for me to come out."

After the order was given, Lin Feng returned to his private rest room.

Lock the door from the inside and cut off all external communications.

Then, close your eyes and concentrate.

The moment consciousness sinks into the system space, the flow of time switches to 1:10.

In the pure white space, a three-dimensional molecular model of the Azure Dragon Elixir floated in the center. But at this moment, countless red dots appeared around it—each dot representing a problem exposed in real-world experiments.

"Initiate full-system gene network simulation," Lin Feng commanded.

Spatial response: a vast and breathtaking network of human gene interactions slowly unfolds. It is not a simplified model, but a complete system simulating all known genes, all known regulatory relationships, and all known metabolic pathways.

The Azure Dragon potion was injected into this virtual human body.

The simulation begins.

In the first minute, the vector distribution simulation was completed. The results showed that 0.07% of the vectors did indeed cross the blood-brain barrier through an unknown mechanism—not every time, but the probability could rise to 3.2% under certain physiological conditions.

"Cause: The tight junction protein ZO-1 of the blood-brain barrier undergoes a conformational change under the stimulation of inflammatory factors, increasing the porosity to 100 nanometers." The system provides the analysis.

"Solution: Modify the surface of the carrier with a blood-brain barrier-specific blocking peptide. This peptide will competitively bind to ZO-1 and seal the pores."

In the second hour, the mystery of the protease was solved.

"This protease is a mutant of the human innate enzyme PEPD, induced by a certain auxiliary component in the drug. Mutation site: glutamic acid at position 127 is changed to lysine."

"Induction mechanism: Nanoscale metal ions in the auxiliary components interfere with the methylation modification of the PEPD gene."

Solution: Replace the chelating agent of the auxiliary component with an organic ligand instead of metal ions.

On the third day, the mystery of excessive telomere repair was solved.

"The enhancer region of the telomerase regulatory element has 3% sequence homology with the promoter of a certain oncogene. When telomerase is activated, the oncogene is also activated at a low level."

Solution: Redesign the control element to eliminate homologous sequences.

On the fifth day, the root causes and solutions to all the major problems were found.

But Lin Feng did not stop.

He stayed in the system space for another three years.

In these three years, he did three things:

First, the entire molecular structure of the Azure Dragon medicine was re-optimized. Not modified, but reconstructed—ensuring that every atom is in its most stable position from the perspective of the most fundamental chemical bonds.

Second, a seven-layer redundant safety mechanism was designed. This includes a self-destruct switch after gene editing is completed, an emergency brake in case of abnormal activation, and error correction compensation in case of off-target effects. The triggering logic of the entire safety system is more complex than the therapeutic part of the drug.

Third, a dynamic risk assessment model was established. This model can predict possible drug reactions in real time based on an individual's genotype, physiological state, and environmental factors, and dynamically adjust the dosing regimen.

Three years in the system space, three months in the real world.

When he walked out of the lounge, Academician Zhang was pacing at the door with a stack of reports in his arms.

"Chief Engineer Lin! You've finally figured it out!" The old man exclaimed with relief. "In the past few months, we've discovered three new problems..."

"I understand." Lin Feng took the report and quickly glanced at it. "Problem 1: The drug is cleared from the kidneys 20% faster than expected, resulting in insufficient duration of effective concentration maintenance. Solution: Modify the carrier surface with glomerular basement membrane-binding peptides to slow down the filtration rate."

"Question 2: Some individuals with certain genotypes will produce neutralizing antibodies. Solution: Add an immune tolerance inducer to the medication; the specific formula is here."

"Question 3..."

He rattled off the root causes and solutions to twelve problems in one breath, some of which the lab had only discovered in the last few months and hadn't yet had a chance to report.

Academician Zhang's mouth dropped open, and after a long pause, he managed to stammer out, "Chief Engineer Lin, have you been conducting research in some parallel universe these past few months?"

Lin Feng smiled but didn't explain: "Notify everyone that there will be a meeting in an hour. We have a new plan."

The meeting lasted twelve hours.

When Lin Feng finished explaining all the optimization solutions, the laboratory was completely silent.

It's not that we don't understand; it's that we understand it all too thoroughly—these solutions are as precise as a scalpel, each cut hitting the most critical lesion. More importantly, they don't just solve problems; they build a complete defense system capable of dealing with unknown risks.

"From today onwards," Lin Feng concluded, "the development of the Azure Dragon Elixir will enter its second phase. We will use this new approach to restart all experiments."

"What about the data from before..." someone asked.

"It's all useful," Lin Feng affirmed. "It's precisely because of those failures that we've seen the complexity of life. Now, we have a more complete puzzle."

The laboratory is back in operation.

This time, the pace slowed down, but every step was taken with unwavering firmness.

New carrier construction, new animal models, new detection methods... all aspects are progressing smoothly according to the optimization plan given by Lin Feng.

Problems will still occur, but fewer and easier to solve.

Three months passed quietly in this rigorous process.

As winter turned to spring and the first cry of a seabird echoed outside the laboratory window, Academician Zhang walked into Lin Feng's office with the latest comprehensive evaluation report in hand.

"Chief Engineer Lin, the 68th batch of primate experiments... all passed." The old man's voice trembled. "All indicators are safe, effective, and stable. The biggest problem with the Azure Dragon primary gene drug... we've overcome it."

"Very good." Lin Feng closed the report. "We can begin preparing the final application materials for the clinical trial. Volunteer recruitment for Phase I can also begin."

"Understood!" Academician Zhang saluted excitedly and turned to make the arrangements.

Just then, the red encrypted phone on Lin Feng's desk suddenly rang.

That was Old Chen's private line.

Normally, Mr. Chen only contacts us through a standard encrypted channel. Using this phone means... there's something of utmost urgency.

Lin Feng gestured for Academician Zhang to wait a moment and picked up the receiver.

"Old Chen."

"Lin Feng, are you busy?" Old Chen's voice came, calm, but with a rare solemnity.

"We're discussing the progress of the Azure Dragon project," Lin Feng said. "What happened?"

"Yes, something has indeed happened." Old Chen paused. "This matter needs to be discussed in person. If you have time, please come to the capital."

The specific details weren't mentioned, but Lin Feng understood the implication—this matter was so serious that it couldn't even be discussed in an encrypted phone call.

"Yes, Mr. Chen." He didn't hesitate. "I'll set off immediately."

The call has ended.

Lin Feng looked at Academician Zhang: "I entrust you with full responsibility for the follow-up work of the Qinglong project. Proceed with the clinical trial preparations as planned. If you have any questions, please contact me through the encrypted channel."

"Chief Engineer Lin, what's wrong...?"

"I'm going to the capital." Lin Feng had already begun packing his belongings. "The time is uncertain. I'll leave the laboratory in your care."

One hour later, at a military airport in the East China Sea.

When Lin Feng boarded the private jet, it was already close to dusk.