I See through Everything

If Lin Shuya were a poor student, or if she hadn’t achieved what she has now, Station Chief Guo might not have come to such a direct conclusion.

But Lin Shuya was an industry pioneer who had developed a new cultivation technique for White Truffles. Under these circumstances, the reason for her expulsion definitely wasn’t academic incompetence.

Add to that the case of Luo Yulin, who jumped to his death.

And all the negative press in recent years about the relationships between PhD students and their advisors.

Anyone could tell at a glance who the underdog was.

Like Station Chief Guo, many people had already guessed the root of the conflict. The doctoral advisor, Du Bolun, must have done something awful to make them turn on each other and become such bitter enemies.

However, even though this was most likely the case, as a professional host and journalist, Station Chief Guo knew his place. He couldn’t just take a side publicly. It was best to wait until the dust settled and the truth was revealed before speaking out.

Besides, his was an agricultural channel, not a current affairs news channel.

After a moment of thought, he decided not to act on his own authority. He called the station to report the situation.

As he expected, the station told him to just focus on the upcoming feature report and not to worry about anything else. They also instructed him not to make any public statements related to Handong University.

...

「Meanwhile.」

In the doctoral program office at Handong University.

Du Bolun, who had drunk quite a bit at a dinner banquet the previous night, was strolling leisurely into work.

As soon as he walked in, he noticed the other doctoral advisors giving him strange looks—the kind of expressions that were not quite smiles.

But none of them said anything. After all, it wasn’t their problem. The best way to handle this sort of thing was to stay out of it, watch the drama unfold from the sidelines, and enjoy the show.

Just then, Du Bolun’s phone rang. He pulled it out and saw it was his son. The two of them had attended the banquet together the night before and had both gotten completely wasted.

He answered the call.

"Jinxuan, what is it?"

"Dad, something terrible has happened!" The voice on the other end was panicked.

"Did you get in trouble again?" Du Bolun’s first reaction was that his son had caused some mischief.

"It’s not me! It’s about Lin Shuya. There are rumors flying all over the internet. Just go online and search for it."

"What’s that bitch saying online? An ant trying to shake a tree—she doesn’t know her own limits." Full of confidence, Du Bolun didn’t give Lin Shuya a second thought.

After all, he only knew that Lin Shuya had gone back to Lingnan and had apparently gotten married to some small-time business owner.

’How could someone like that possibly threaten me?’ Du Bolun thought. ’She probably just resents me and wrote some sob story online. It’s not like I haven’t dealt with this before. It never amounts to anything. At most, people will gossip behind my back, but that doesn’t affect me. I couldn’t care less.’

On the other end of the line, Du Jinxuan heard his father’s words and knew he wasn’t taking it seriously. He grew anxious and said hurriedly:

"Dad, this time is different! Just go take a look, then figure out a way to quell this! Otherwise, our family could be finished."

"You’re just being an alarmist. What power does that bitch have? I looked into her family background long ago. They’re just simple people who haven’t seen the world. I’ll take a look. Hanging up." Du Bolun ended the call.

After sitting down and leaning back on the sofa, he took out his phone, opened a browser, and searched for Lin Shuya’s name along with his own.

A slew of search results instantly popped up on the screen.

After a few minutes, the color drained from his face, turning from ruddy to a deathly pale. "Damn it! How is this possible? How could she have developed this kind of technology? I don’t believe it!"

He muttered to himself as he continued to scan the other news reports.

But when he saw the CCTV News video report on Hailufeng Company’s White Truffle technology, and caught a fleeting glimpse of Lin Shuya, his composure vanished. All that remained on his face was shock, confusion, and worry.

「At that very moment.」

In another office at Handong University, the atmosphere was also strange and oppressive.

As the university president, Xia Yanbing’s face was as black as the bottom of a wok. He was holding several freshly printed news articles.

One of them was from the *Heart-stopping Report*, titled "A Nobel-Level Genius Departs: An Act of Arrogance, or a Last Resort?"

He suppressed his rage. "Well? Let’s hear it. What do we do now?"

One of the administrators cautiously suggested, "President, what about the silent treatment? If we don’t respond, the online reports will die down after a while."

"I agree. We absolutely cannot respond to this. Otherwise, the more we say, the guiltier we’ll look. We’ll just end up facing even greater public pressure."

A manager who had never been fond of Du Bolun spoke up, his expression cold. "I also agree with Old Fang’s proposal. However, Du Bolun is no longer fit to be a doctoral advisor. We should suspend him for now."

But an older man with a receding hairline, wearing an expression that said ’I’m only thinking of what’s best for the university,’ countered, "That’s not a good idea, is it? If we do that, aren’t we tacitly admitting that the university was in the wrong? Why don’t we wait for this to blow over and then find an opportunity to terminate Du Bolun’s contract?"

"..." The man who had suggested suspending Du Bolun frowned for a moment, but his expression quickly smoothed over. "Let the president decide. I will respect the president’s wishes."

Xia Yanbing, of course, had no intention of taking the blame for this decision. He said sternly, "This is a meeting, not a dictatorship. Let’s put it to a vote. All in favor of the silent treatment, raise your hands."