Chapter 1711: What a Coincidence
Gu Nianzhi was at a loss for words.
Yes, why did he say “Again”?
She looked at Lu Jin with a slight headache, thinking to herself, “Don’t I have to ask the two of you, “Gu Xiangwen”?”
Lu Jin looked at her with great interest and laughed, “I get it! Is it possible that the counterpart of Is.h.i.+hara Baisan also committed seppuku?!”
Gu Nianzhi nodded and frowned. “Not only did Is.h.i.+hara Baisan commit seppuku over there, he was also… cursed at by Mr. Gu Xiangwen to kill himself in that manner…”
Lu Jin was instantly elated. “Hahahaha… What a coincidence! It’s the same here!”
Gu Nianzhi: “…”
She narrowed her eyes unkindly. “Dad, does that mean that the ‘international murder case’ that happened at Dunhill Hotel really has something to do with you?”
Lu Jin’s laughter stopped abruptly.
He looked at Gu Nianzhi awkwardly, his eyes almost pleading.
Gu Nianzhi would not be moved by his pleas for mercy.
Gu Nianzhi’s heart trembled at the thought of what Lu Jin might have done.
She thought back to what he had done to send her across the street..
Gu Nianzhi suppressed the panic and fear in her heart and said calmly, “… Did you curse at him to death too? How did you curse at him? Where did you curse him? Who was there at the time? How many people saw you leave?”
She asked a series of questions and was already in the lawyer’s interrogation mode.
Lu Jin was a little afraid of Gu Nianzhi, when she is so strict and serious.
He shrunk back and inconspicuously moved to the other side of the sofa. He said in a low voice,”… Then first tell me how Gu Xiangwen cursed at Is.h.i.+hara Baisan to death…”
He collected himself, trying to prevent from revealing too much information.
Gu Nianzhi, however, saw through his thoughts and laughed in exasperation. “I’m not going to give you a template to follow! You’d better answer me honestly how you did it, and I’ll tell you how Gu Xiangwen did it over there.”
After a pause, Gu Nianzhi added, “The Is.h.i.+hara Baisan over there died many years ago, unlike the Is.h.i.+hara Baisan over here who’s still alive.”
Lu Jin saw that he couldn’t cover up anymore, so he let out a long sigh and sat up straight, he lowered his head and said, “Actually, I didn’t curse at him. I didn’t even meet him. I just called him and put two small items in front of his hotel room.”
“Oh? Where did you call him? What was the contents of the conversation? Also, the things you put in front of Is.h.i.+hara Baisan’s hotel room. Did you put them there yourself, or did you get someone else to do it?”
Gu Nianzhi carefully trace back Lu Jin’s actions, trying to eliminate any possibility of being discovered.
She did not want Lu Jin to be involved in this case because she was worried that Lu Jin would attract too much public attention and He Chengjian would discover his true ident.i.ty.
Lu Jin was intimidated by Gu Nianzhi’s imposing att.i.tude, he said honestly, “It was in the room next to Is.h.i.+hara Baisan’s. I called him and told him that I knew what he had done. Then I placed a small test tube and a few lab notes in front of his room.”
“When he saw those two things, he knew that when he was writing his doctoral thesis, he had exposed the fact that he had plagiarized my experimental design,” Lu Jin said as he stole a glance at Gu Nianzhi.
Gu Nianzhi’s expression grew serious. Her delicate and lively little face turned stiff, and she exuded an aura that could penetrate hearts. It was exactly the same as that person’s imposing manner in the courtroom.
He Chengjian, that old fogey, didn’t recognize such a similar temperament at all. He must be drunk..
Lu Jin cursed silently in his heart. His gaze fell on Gu Nianzhi’s face, her expression was slightly moved and hurt.
Gu Nianzhi frowned again, and her gaze was sharp and fierce. “AH? Is.h.i.+hara Baisan copied your experimental design in his doctoral thesis?! But didn’t you say that you didn’t know him and weren’t cla.s.smates with him?!”
Lu Jin closed his eyes in embarra.s.sment, he forced himself to say,”… Well, in theory, we’re not cla.s.smates. I majored in high-energy physics in university, so I only went to Is.h.i.+hara Baisan’s biological genetic engineering lab to listen in and do some experiments. I don’t have a degree in that field of studies, and I don’t want credits, so…”
“You’re just playing games with me, aren’t you?!” Gu Nianzhi raised her voice angrily. “Is it fun to pick your words?”
“… it’s quite fun,” Lu Jin muttered. “Don’t lawyers like to pick their words and play word games?”
He spoke so confidently that Gu Nianzhi was speechless.
She stared at Lu Jin for a while before saying firmly, “Are you treating me like a lawyer? You want to be my client? Fine, then we’ll talk like we are in a relations.h.i.+p between a lawyer and a client. You are not allowed to hide anything from us!”
“Nianzhi, don’t be angry… Dad was just saying it casually. We have such a close and wonderful relations.h.i.+p between father and daughter, why do we have to make it to such a cold and transactional relations.h.i.+p like between a lawyer and a client?”
Lu Jin immediately refused to be Gu Nianzhi’s client.
Gu Nianzhi’s expression softened slightly and she nodded. “Okay then, we’re still father and daughter. I’m asking you now, as a father, you can’t lie to your own daughter. This is worse than the consequences of a client lying to his own lawyer.”
Lu Jin: “…”
Alright, in terms of logic, he was trash in front of Gu Nianzhi.
Gu Nianzhi raised her chin at Lu Jin. “Tell me in detail how your experiment notes ended up in Is.h.i.+hara Baisan’s hands.”
Lu Jin: “…”
He scratched his head. “You want to tell me that? There’s nothing to tell. It’s just that my design was on my desk in the lab and Is.h.i.+hara Baisan saw it…”
“Really? Then Is.h.i.+hara Baisan seems to be a genius himself. Why would he copy your experimental design?” Gu Nianzhi asked, puzzled, “You also said that your main profession is high-energy physics. You only went to their biological genetic engineering laboratory to listen in and do a few experiments. Is.h.i.+hara Baisan was the most talented doctoral student in the laboratory at the time. Why would he need to copy the experimental design of one who is just sitting in?”
Lu Jin smiled slyly and said, “You’ll have to ask him about that.”
“He’s already dead. I can’t ask him. I can only ask you,” Gu Nianzhi said calmly. Her gaze was like a laser detector, locked onto Lu Jin.
Under such gazes, Lu Jin did not dare to make any unusual moves.
He tried his best to maintain his composure and said discontentedly, “So what if I’m just sitting in student? Even if I’m sitting in in their laboratory, I’m still better than them!”
“Alright, I know you’re a genius. But in terms of academics, as a student who is just sitting in, have you ever displayed your intellect and knowledge in the subject matter?” Gu Nianzhi asked in detail. She needed a lot of actual facts from the past to speculate on all the reasons for Is.h.i.+hara Baisan’s suicide.
In Gu Nianzhi’s opinion, the fact that he had committed suicide because his plagiarism had been exposed was indeed the j.a.panese way of doing things.
But was that the only reason?
Lu Jin relaxed when he saw that Gu Nianzhi didn’t seem to care about why Is.h.i.+hara Baisan had plagiarized his experimental design, he smiled and said, “Well, I’m still very low-key. I occasionally show off my talents in high-energy physics and computer science. I was still in the learning stage when it came to biogenetic engineering.”
“Oh? You were still in the learning stage. Is.h.i.+hara Baisan, as a doctoral student in this laboratory, would copy your experimental design and use it in his doctoral thesis? Why does it sound so unbelievable?”
Gu Nianzhi tapped her right cheek lightly with one of her fingers. Her expression was one of disbelief.
“Why is it unbelievable?” Lu Jin blinked in confusion. “Are you looking down on my ability?”
“Of course you’re a genius in my eyes.” Gu Nianzhi’s expression softened slightly, and the corners of her lips curled up, “But you just said that when you were in that laboratory, you were still in the learning stage. In other words, you didn’t show off the depth of your knowledge and understanding in biogenetic engineering.”
“For example, if a university student writes a graduation thesis, no matter how much he plagiarizes, he wouldn’t plagiarize an elementary school student’s thesis, right?”
“With Is.h.i.+hara Baisan’s education and years of experimentation, you were almost like an elementary school student in front of him, right?”
Gu Nianzhi deliberately exaggerated her explanation.
Lu Jin was very indignant. “Why am I almost like an elementary school student? In that laboratory, I was at least an undergraduate student, okay?!”
“Yes, even if you were an undergraduate student in biogenetic engineering, Is.h.i.+hara Baisan was already a PhD student. Why would he want to plagiarize an undergraduate student’s experimental design? Unless you had already displayed outstanding talent in biogenetic engineering at the time.”
Gu Nianzhi remained expressionless as she returned to the topic step by step.
Lu Jin had not noticed at the time. He happily jumped into the small pit Gu Nianzhi had dug and extended his right index finger to point at Gu Nianzhi, “Nianzhi, you don’t know this. Although I didn’t display outstanding talent in biogenetic engineering at the time, my experimental design was just enough to solve Is.h.i.+hara Baisan’s experiment’s bottleneck problem!”
“When he saw the experimental design on my desk, he was stunned…” Lu Jin was immersed in his memories, “He thought I didn’t know, but I actually installed a pinhole camera near the computer on my desk. I could see his every move clearly.”
“At that time, it was noon in the lab. Everyone else had gone to lunch, but he was alone in the lab. When he saw that no one was around, he took out a camera and took pictures of my experimental design.”
Gu Nianzhi nodded and made the final decision. “Oh, that means you knew he was going to plagiarize your experimental designs at that time, but why did you only threaten to expose him now?”
It was the same question that Peter had asked.
Lu Jin glared at Gu Nianzhi. “Did Peter ask you to ask me that?”
Gu Nianzhi was confused. “Why Peter? I came up with this question myself. I haven’t spoken to Mr. Peter today.”
Huo Shaoheng and Lu Yuan had been listening for a while at the door of the living room.
Seeing Lu Jin question Gu Nianzhi, Huo Shaoheng walked over unhurriedly and took out the small test tube and a few yellowed papers from his trouser pocket. He handed them to Gu Nianzhi and said, “I haven’t had the chance to tell you. I found these in Is.h.i.+hara Baisan’s room.”