CH 4.3

Like a Old Man Talking About the Past (Part 3)

Ye Chen was undisputedly the most popular teacher in the School of Life Sciences of F University. He was young and knowledgeable. If one were to walk past him outside of the school setting, he would have been regarded as a noble boy, attracting many people’s attention.

At that time, Tian Jingzhi was deceived by his appearance. She had thought he was pure and reliable, but after they started to date did she realize the truth. She was swindled hard by his face. 

Of course, the feeling was mutual for Ye Chen.

“The mitochondria is the powerhouse of cells.” Ye Chen held the chalk and wrote the English word for powerhouse on the blackboard, “Each division of mitochondria will cause irreparable damage, resulting in shortening of telomeres. When the telomeres shorten to a certain extent, the cell begins to collapse. It will completely lose the ability to divide and replicate; and that is one of the causes of a human’s limited life span. As long as the degree of cell division increases, a wound can be healed quickly, however, the number of cell divisions in the human body is limited.” 

A student in the class raised their hand.

Ye Chen stopped and looked over with a smile: “Do you have any questions?”

“But cancer cells can divide indefinitely.”

Ye Chen nodded approvingly, “Very good point... The reason why cancer cells can divide and reproduce indefinitely is because when normal cells mutate to cancer cells, the enzyme 'telomerase' is also mutated. In a normal cell, a telomerase’s functions are limited, but in cancer cells it can repair telomeres that are shortened during division... If one day we can apply this mutated telomerase to normal cells, then we can turn normal cells into immortal cells. Or if we can find a more perfect repair enzyme than telomerase, then maybe human beings will never die...”

After the course was over, the students left one after one. Ye Chen was sorting out the lesson plan when his cell phone suddenly rang. It was the call from Assistant Lingling.

"Mr. Ye, the PPT for the gene repair project has been modified according to your request."

“Thanks so much for the help.”

“Of course, I am also benefiting from all the new knowledge. But, Mr. Ye, did Professor Li really find a more perfect repair enzyme than telomerase in the hair sample that was sent in from more than two months ago? Was the sample contaminated?”

“Only the teacher was responsible for the sample testing. I didn't participate, but there shouldn’t be any mistakes.” Ye Chen was a little curious, “Why, do you have some doubts?”

Lingling stated her own input, “A repair enzyme more perfect than telomerase is unlikely a substance synthesized spontaneously by the human body.”

Ye Chen nodded, “That’s correct, I also suspect that the sample was triggered by a genetic mutation by an outside factor. Most likely when they were still alive.”

Lingling was taken aback, “When they were alive? Was the hair sample from a deceased person?”

Thinking of the lost mummy, Ye Chen smiled bitterly. It has been a long time since the accident, but the investigation of the case has not shown any progress. After hanging up the phone, Ye Chen noticed that there was a person sitting in the last row of the classroom, waiting patiently for him to finish the call. Speak of the devil. “When did you arrive?”

Li Yanzhi seriously recalled, "When you said, ‘In a normal cell, telomerase’s functions are limited, but in cancer cells it can repair telomeres that are shortened during division’."

“What are your thoughts?”

“I prefer if the birth and death rate of human beings are within a normal and controllable range. Earth's resources are limited. With only a birth rate and no deaths, the human population would increase exponentially, then we would become the cancer cells of earth.”

Ye Chen laughed, “Interesting insight, but my research thesis is about anti-aging and gene repair. It is my dream to turn humans into the cancer cells of the earth.”

Li Yanzhi did not comment, but took out a file folder from his bag: “Let's get down to business. We made some progress on the case. This is Xiaozhi's medical record, have a look.” Li Yanzhi was a little helpless when thinking about the process of obtaining medical records, “My subordinates said that the head nurse of this hospital is really a difficult one. She would only smile at you, and refused to cooperate with the police in handling the case at all until the search warrant was presented. As you know, search warrants are sometimes really hard to obtain.”

Ye Chen took the medical record and looked over it carefully. He quickly found the problem, “When Xiaozhi was carried to the ambulance, there was a large amount of blood on her white dress. But the medical record showed that she had no wounds, and her internal organs were also intact. No visible signs of any bleeding... Where's this dress?”

“Yes, I also found that the amount of bleeding did not match, so I went to the hospital to find this dress... But strangely, the nurse said that it disappeared.”

Ye Chen was surprised, “Disappeared?”

Li Yanzhi nodded: “Yes. There should be a third person at the scene, and the blood on the dress may have belonged to the third person.”

Ye Chen's face was solemn, “So that person stole the dress to eliminate the evidence.”

“That's right, I have submitted a report to our section chief. We are hoping to seek cooperation from other departments.”

Ye Chen sighed lightly. He could only put his hopes on Li Yanzhi. He hopes that they will find more clues and seek justice as soon as possible.