Zhang Heng was woken by his mother banging on the door.
Zhang Heng went to the toilet and washed his face in a little bit of a dazed state, feeling his mind become fresh afterward. His parents were just about done putting dinner on the table right after he got out of the toilet.
He initially planned to continue sleeping after eating dinner, but his father knocked on his head with a pair of chopsticks.
"What now?" Zhang Heng was startled, thinking that he had done something wrong and made his father unhappy again.
"Did you tell your little sister about you getting rich?" His father glared at him and asked.
"Not yet." Zhang Heng shook his head in a puzzled manner. Zhang Heng had a younger sister named Zhang Xin, who was four years his junior and was currently in her third year of high school. She was studying in a boarding school called Bashu Middle School and was only allowed to come home once a month.
Bashu Middle School was known for being a trademark place in Chongzhou. The first thing that came to mind to anyone living in Chongzhou was the motto, 'I'm proud of Bashu today, and Bashu shall be proud of me tomorrow'.
Other than that motto, the school was known among all as the 'school for the decadently rich'.
Bashu Middle School was an elite school through and through. The school was practically filled with children from rich families and it had a very studious culture, being ranked in the top five among all schools in Chongzhou in terms of the number of students going to college. As such, many common people were very eager to spend a lot of money to send their children to that school, as was the case with Zhang Heng's sister.
Zhang Xin was unable to perform well enough in her senior high school entrance exams three years ago, and her marks enabled her to attend a third-rate high school. As such, their father decided to cut the entire family's spending just to gather enough funds to send Zhang Xin to the elite school of Bashu Middle School.
Zhang Heng was barely able to gather ample college fees due to that.
'Raising the boy poor and raising the girl rich' was a policy that his father adhered to steadfast, which resulted in Zhang Heng to get the shorter end of things. He was raised to be able to endure hardships from a young age, which led him to develop an independent character.
However, Zhang Heng never thought anything to be unfair. If it hadn't been for his hard life tempering the strength of his character, he wouldn't have been able to survive back in the Resident Evil plane. Back then, he went on to work another part-time job when he faced problems gathering his fees and he was able to get by eventually all the same.
As such, Zhang Heng's father kept feeling that he was doing wrong by him all the time.
One of the reasons why the family's finances were in such a dire state was because his father insisted on sending his sister to an elite school. The regular fees themselves notwithstanding, even the entrance fee of over 3000 yuan was more than enough to choke out most regular families.
"Go drive your sister home in that car you bought. We'll need to celebrate somewhere tomorrow." Something seemed to have happened to his father at that moment, as he smoked after dinner and said.
"Right now?" Zhang Heng was stunned and checked the time as a reflex.
"It's Friday and the school is on a break." His father waved dismissively and said, "Get going and come back soon."
"Sure." Zhang Heng felt rather speechless. He was used to his father favoring his sister over him throughout the years. He took the keys and headed out the door right away.
He didn't immediately head for the school after getting out of the house. He checked the time and saw that there were still three hours before his sister became available for pickup. If he were to drive to the school right now, he wouldn't have been able to get past the gate. As such, he drove to the commercial district of the city and took about half an hour to change his entire outfit.
By the time he walked out of the mall, all of the cheap clothes that he had previously worn were no more. He wore a light blue Tucano blazer with a white shirt underneath, a pair of Versace jeans, and a pair of A.Testoni combat boots.
He nodded satisfyingly at the imposing and dashing look reflected in the rearview mirror of the car before putting on a pair of Armani polarized sunglasses. He drove to Bashu Middle School and gave his younger sister a call.
"Hello?" A petite, soft-sounding voice was heard from the other end of the phone.
"Don't 'hello' me. It's your brother." Zhang Heng replied.
"Hey bro, what are you calling me for?" The voice on the other side of the phone sounded rather tense.
Zhang Heng felt that something was off from his sister's tone of voice. He listened carefully and was able to make out the sound of heavy metal music in all that background noise. He raised his eyebrows and asked, "Where are you right now?"
"I…" The voice from the other end sounded panicky. "I'm studying in a self-study room. Oh man, the teacher is coming in. Gotta go." She said quickly and hung up the phone.
Zhang Heng snorted coldly and didn't buy that lie one bit. He called her one more time before he was able to hear the calling tone and he heard a prompt saying that the number he called was out of reach.
He became flustered immediately. His little sister was not half bad. She was born with a pretty appearance and sported a lithe, tall build. However, due to all the spoiling from their father, she had some rather difficult and larking habits.
Coupling above-average looks and such a personality meant that she went through more shocks to her value in high school than most others.
Zhang Heng went through such a chaotic period himself and as such, he knew what it was like very well. The years in high school were a period of a juvenile crossing into adulthood. Many would have taken the wrong path in such a period and also go through a lot of firsts in their lives.
Their first time smoking, their first time fighting, their first time skipping class, their first time falling in love, and even their first time getting into that kind of relationship.
Since he knew how chaotic life at high school could be Zhang Heng had warned his sister before, telling her that, "If I were to find out that you went about making boyfriends after getting into Bashu Middle School instead of studying, I'd go about breaking your boyfriend's legs."
Of course, he was only being figurative about breaking their legs. It was just that he couldn't stand the thought of his parents getting up early and working into late nights with their business at the stall, where every single penny was earned with sweat and tears, only for all of that money to be wasted away by his sister's self-indulgent tendencies.
Zhang Heng's face gradually turned cold at that thought. Unless his ears were playing tricks on him, he was sure that he heard heavy metal music that would only be played in pubs and bars over the phone with his sister.
He called one of his sister's friends, who was named Yang Yang, who also lived in that old, dank residential area like his family. The reason they were able to become fast and close friends was because they lived so near each other during their childhoods.
However, he unexpectedly found that the same thing that happened with his sister happened with Yang Yang as well. That prompt was heard as soon as the call went through as if the person on the other end hung up as soon as she knew who was calling.
Zhang Heng's expression became even more serious. He became 100 percent sure that his sister was hiding something from him. He immediately sent a message to Yang Yang that read:
"I know that you two are in some pub or bar right now. Take good care of yourselves and if anyone were to try to invite you two to some other place, never agree to that, even if that someone is a classmate you two know well, understand? I need to take Xin home right now, send me the address of that pub or bar you two are at. I would definitely make it worth your while."
Zhang Heng took a deep breath after he sent out the message, and he felt anxious that he was unable to shoo away that rose inside of him for some reason as if to tell him that something unexpected was about to happen.
At that moment, Zhang Heng's phone rang and he picked up without even looking at who was calling, "Hello, Xin, is that you? When…"
"Hello, Mr. Zhang Heng. I'm the president of the Chongzhou branch of the Academy of Sciences. My name is Li Lian." A low-pitched voice of a middle-aged man was heard from the other end of the phone.
Zhang Heng was stunned instantly and bit down on everything that he was about to say before he realized who called him and said instead, "Good day. May I know how I could be of service?"
"I've read about your file from the human resource department and found your work in virology to be quite interesting. I'd like to know if you'd be interested in working for us at the Chongzhou branch of the Academy of Sciences," the voice seemed to belong to a man who was very used to giving orders and it sounded rather stiff when trying to ask for favors instead. Furthermore, the man didn't bother beating around the bush and blurted his intentions out right away.
"Sorry, I'm not interested." Given that the other party was not beating around the bush, he deemed it unnecessary to go about in circles as well. He rejected the proposal right away and hung up at the same time.
The other party was definitely someone who knew that he was the inventor of the T-1 drug, which was why he called in the first place. While Zhang Heng told Li Jianguo before to never give his identity away because he wanted to keep his identity secret from the public. He never had any intention to hide his identity from government authorities, as that wasn't possible in the first place.
His phone rang right after he hung up. Zhang Heng looked at the caller's ID and saw the number to be the same as the one that called him moments before.
"I'm onto something really important right now. Please don't get in my way!" Zhang Heng rejected the other party harshly immediately after answering the call, without waiting for the other party to speak. He was feeling very worried about his sister's wellbeing at the moment and was in no mood to talk terms with the man on the other end.
"Mr. Zhang Heng, we have no intentions of forcing you if you're unwilling to join us, but I'd like to know if you could give us a copy of the data regarding the T-1. We of the Chongzhou branch would be willing to make an offer that would be worth your time." The voice on the other side continued firmly and steadily.
Zhang Heng was stunned and was on high alert right instantly after hearing that. "I don't know what you're talking about. What's this T-1 you speak of? Are you calling the wrong guy?"
"Please don't take it the wrong way, Mr. Zhang Heng. We're calling from the Academy of Sciences but due to some internal reasons, we were only given access to the T-1's data a month later, so…" The voice on the other side sounded rather awkward.
Zhang Heng shook his head frustratingly and replied bluntly, "I'm sorry but I'm really occupied right now. If you have anything to discuss with me, wait until I'm available, okay?" He hung up after saying that.
In a military base located somewhere near the outskirts of Chongzhou at that moment, a middle-aged man who wore a dark green military outfit and had the insignia rank of a major general hung up the phone with a glum look on his face.
The researchers with silver hairs and wore white robes stood around him and covered their faces as they chuckled in secret, seemingly very pleased to see that middle-aged man getting the door shut in his face.
"Hehe, kid. The man on the other side refused to even entertain the president of a branch with the rank of major general like you. Seems like your status really isn't of any use," an old man who had a head full of silver hair jabbed away unforgivingly.
"Hmph, if he were one of my troops, I would have had him kidnapped and brought before me a long time ago!" The middle-aged major general snorted coldly and ordered two young researchers by his side with a frustrated look, "Call him once every day starting tomorrow. Notify me at once if he changes his mind."
"Yes, sir!" The two researchers saluted him at once.