Chapter Summaries

Sheng Changya and Sanqing Beauty’s employees tested the company’s scar-removal and hair-removal creams, finding that both worked exceptionally well. After two weeks, their scars had disappeared and their hair had stopped growing back, leaving them confident the products would become major sellers.

• Sheng Changya and several employees began clinical trials of the scar-removal cream and hair-removal cream.
• Lucy applied the hair-removal cream to her arm and found that it removed every hair painlessly in one minute.
• After three days, Sheng Changya and the others saw their scars fading, and after a week more, the scars had disappeared.
• The employees continued using the hair-removal cream, and after two weeks they discovered their hair had stopped growing back.
• Sheng Changya and her coworkers celebrated the products’ results and predicted they would become Sanqing Beauty’s next blockbusters.

Sanqing Pharmaceutical announced successful development of its scar removal and fast-acting hair removal creams, prompting celebrity Yang Li to seek a private trial for her C-section scar. Wei Kang agreed to treat her in Kun City in exchange for her endorsing both products, and Yang Li accepted.

• Sanqing Pharmaceutical announced that its scar removal cream and hair removal cream had been developed, drawing widespread interest online.
• Yang Li contacted Sheng Changya to ask for private access to the scar removal cream because of the scar from her two C-sections.
• Sheng Changya asked Wei Kang, who agreed to let Yang Li join the clinical trial on the condition that she endorse both creams.
• Yang Li agreed to keep her abdominal scar confidential, use other scars for promotional comparisons, and recommend the products to friends in the entertainment industry.
• Yang Li told Sheng Changya she would leave for Kun City that afternoon and stay for the month-long trial.

Yang Li tested Sanqing Pharmaceutical’s scar-removal cream, and her nearly vanished C-section scar convinced Zhang Qiqi and Li Chao to try it as well. After Zhang Qiqi revealed the cream’s results at an endorsement event, online demand surged and celebrities across the entertainment industry sought the product, leaving Sheng Changya’s phone inundated with calls.

• Yang Li used Sanqing Pharmaceutical’s scar-removal cream in Kun City, and her abdominal scar faded until it was barely visible.
• Yang Li showed Zhang Qiqi her before-and-after photos, and Zhang asked Sheng Changya for samples; Li Chao also requested cream for a scar on his back.
• After using the cream, Zhang Qiqi’s C-section scar disappeared, and she credited Sanqing’s product when reporters questioned her at an endorsement event.
• Yang Li and Zhang Qiqi promoted the cream, prompting netizens to demand its release and Sanqing to announce a launch in one month and open pre-orders.
• Celebrities sought the scar-removal cream after seeing the results, and Sheng Changya’s phone was bombarded with calls.

Xu Bo, a severely burned firefighter, struggled to return to frontline rescue work while reliving the traumatic explosion that injured him. His doctor told him that Sanqing Pharmaceutical had developed an ointment that might remove his scars, giving Xu Bo hope of rebuilding his life.

• Xu Bo secretly practiced with a fire hose nozzle, hoping to regain enough strength to fight fires again.
• Xu Bo relived the rescue in which he entered a burning house to save a girl and was badly burned in an explosion.
• Xu Bo remembered the extent of his injuries and how he had returned to the brigade despite his doctor's warnings.
• Xu Bo's attending physician called to say Sanqing Pharmaceutical's scar-removal ointment could treat his scars and invited him to try it.
• Xu Bo agreed to visit the doctor and began to hope that he might recover from the scars and live a more ordinary life.

Xu Bo recovered from his severe burns using Sanqing’s scar-removal ointment and returned to the fire station, where his story helped the cream go viral before it sold out at launch. As Sanqing prepared to increase production, a little-noticed report announced that Feizhou locusts had returned in greatly increased numbers.

• After two weeks of treatment, Xu Bo saw his scars fading, and the doctor estimated he would recover fully in a little over a month.
• A month later, Xu Bo’s scars had faded to faint white marks, and his teammates applauded his return to the fire station.
• The captain brought reporters to interview Xu Bo, whose account of Sanqing’s ointment spread widely online and drew public attention to the product.
• Pharmaceutical companies producing competing scar-removal creams panicked, with some changing their businesses and others shutting down.
• Sanqing’s scar-removal cream sold out immediately after launch, and buyers posted positive before-and-after photos as interest spread overseas.
• A low-ranking news report announced that Feizhou locusts had returned in numbers twenty times greater than before.

News reports of an unprecedented locust plague spreading from Feizhou across Africa and toward Asia sparked alarm and debate. Experts worldwide gathered to discuss how to contain the swarms, while the chapter left the disaster unresolved.

• CCTV reported that vast Desert Locust swarms had devastated Feizhou and spread across East Africa, the Desert Peninsula, and neighboring regions, threatening crops and food security.
• Chinese viewers shared the footage and argued that the locusts could be eaten or fed to poultry, while others explained that such methods could not handle swarms of this scale.
• Netizens debated pesticide use, noting that stronger chemicals could harm beneficial insects, birds, and the environment, and that locusts could develop resistance.
• Biological, agricultural, and pesticide experts from around the world gathered to discuss how to address the spreading locust disaster.

Chinese officials prepared for the spreading locust disaster as an agricultural official learned that Sanqing Pharmaceutical had developed a promising new pesticide. He ordered the Academy of Agricultural Sciences to test its effectiveness against locusts, leaving the company’s potential role in the response unconfirmed.

• A task force reported that Desert Locusts in Pakistan had entered their breeding period, and Chinese experts assessed the risk of them reaching border provinces.
• Agricultural officials agreed to strengthen locust monitoring and preparedness, including stockpiling pesticides and improving emergency plans.
• The official’s secretary reported that Sanqing Pharmaceutical had developed a low-toxicity pesticide that performed exceptionally well in initial tests.
• The official ordered the Academy of Agricultural Sciences to test the pesticide against locusts and said he would report its significance if the results proved remarkable.
• As the plague spread internationally, chemical and pharmaceutical companies announced plans to help develop locust-control products.

As locusts devastated crops across several regions, pharmaceutical companies raced to develop pesticides, but their solutions proved too slow or raised unanswered concerns. India claimed to have eliminated the swarm, then Persia revealed the locusts had merely turned toward its territory, and the chapter ended with an agricultural expert announcing that Chinese ducks would be sent abroad to fight them.

• Roche announced a fungus that killed locusts but acted too slowly to stop the fast-moving swarms, while Bayer promoted a chemical insecticide without providing enough information about its dangers.
• The locusts ravaged crops and tourism, and India declared that it had eliminated the approaching swarm after deploying drones and troops.
• Persia revealed that most locusts had turned away from India toward southern Persia, warning India to watch for returning swarms and eggs near its borders.
• Chinese netizens worried about the plague reaching China and discussed the country’s ability to respond.
• An agricultural expert announced that Chinese Ducks would head abroad to eliminate locusts.

A viral interview promoted a 100,000-duck army as China’s answer to Pakistan’s locust plague, while the agricultural work team faced the devastation firsthand. Xia Lizhi tested a mysterious new insecticide and watched it kill swarms of locusts within minutes, leaving the team stunned by its apparent effectiveness.

• A professor’s interview about sending 100,000 ducks to fight locusts went viral, drawing mockery and cautious hope from netizens.
• Xia Lizhi observed the locust swarm ravaging Punjab Province after Pakistan’s efforts to control it had failed.
• Fang Yu brought Xia Lizhi a batch of new insecticide and urged him to test it.
• Xia Lizhi sprayed the locusts, and they began falling dead from the sky within minutes.
• Xia Lizhi and the team emptied their spray bottles across the area, clearing the sky and piling the ground with locust corpses.

Global agrochemical giants offered African nations expensive or limited anti-locust pesticides, prompting Jemol to seek alternatives. Syngenta directed the African Union toward China's Three Purities, whose new pesticide had reportedly worked well in Pakistan.

• DuPont, Bayer, and BASF executives promoted their new anti-locust pesticides while refusing to offer them for free.
• At negotiations in Ethiopia, Jemol rejected DuPont's high price, questioned Bayer's pesticide safety, and learned BASF could supply only three thousand tons.
• Robert urged African nations to borrow from Western bankers to fund purchases, while Jemol recognized the companies' alliance and postponed a decision.
• Jemol and the other representatives decided to contact Syngenta and compare suppliers before placing orders.
• Syngenta offered older pesticides at low prices but referred the African Union to China's Ministry of Agriculture and Three Purities' tested locust-control pesticide.
• Jemol wondered whether Three Purities, which he knew as a pharmaceutical company, also produced pesticides.

DuPont, Bayer, and BASF pursued locust-control contracts in several countries, while Sanqing Pharmaceutical’s insecticide impressed African officials with its rapid results. DuPont’s pesticide failed to stop Dubai’s locusts immediately, leaving Crown Prince Mohammed furious as Robert explained that it would take five days to work.

• Crown Prince Mohammed ordered 1,000 tons of DuPont and Roche’s environmentally friendly biopesticide for Dubai, and Robert stayed to arrange aerial spraying.
• India’s President ordered 1,000 tons of Bayer’s pesticide, while BASF’s chief executive failed to secure any contracts during his sales trip.
• BASF’s chief executive returned to Ethiopia and learned from Jemol that African officials had ordered Sanqing Pharmaceutical’s insecticide instead.
• Jemol showed BASF’s chief executive a video of Sanqing’s insecticide wiping out a locust swarm in Pakistan, shocking him into fearing BASF’s pesticide would go unsold.
• Mohammed and Robert watched DuPont’s pesticide sprayed over Dubai, but the locusts kept devouring vegetation for hours.
• Mohammed challenged Robert about the pesticide’s failure to act, and Robert explained that it would take five days to begin killing locusts.

India’s trial of Bayer’s pesticide raised alarms when its chemical fumes made the President ill, while Ethiopia’s use of Three Purities’ pesticide rapidly wiped out locusts. By the next morning, Jemol found the treated fields covered in dead locusts and no swarms remaining.

• India’s President and Bayer’s chief executive watched Bayer’s pesticide kill some locusts, but experts worried about its strong odor and possible toxicity.
• India’s experts began testing the air and dead locusts as the swarm’s death rate slowed and the President questioned Bayer’s effectiveness.
• The President of India inhaled the fumes, vomited, and nearly collapsed, prompting officials to suspect Bayer’s pesticide was dangerously toxic.
• Jemol arranged for planes to spray Three Purities’ pesticide over Ethiopia’s locust swarms, which began falling dead after about ten minutes.
• Jemol collected dead locusts for toxicology testing, then returned to the fields the next morning and found the plague seemingly wiped out.

After DuPont and Bayer's pesticides failed or caused environmental harm, Ethiopia and Pakistan eradicated their locust plagues with Three Purities' fast, low-toxicity insecticide. Demand surged worldwide, and Three Purities partnered with Syngenta to fill the flood of orders while India struggled to secure a supply.

• Netizens criticized DuPont's slow-acting pesticide and condemned Bayer's pesticide for poisoning people and damaging the environment.
• Ethiopia and Pakistan announced that Three Purities' insecticide had swiftly eradicated their locust swarms with a kill rate above 99%.
• Countries across Feizhou, Persia, and the Desert Peninsula ordered Three Purities' insecticide, while India was left waiting and its president sought priority supply at a higher price.
• Three Purities received orders totaling tens of thousands of tons and arranged for Syngenta to manufacture the insecticide and ship it to affected countries.

Sanqing earned about six billion dollars from pesticide orders during the locust plague, then planned to expand its pharmaceutical presence overseas while keeping agricultural chemicals as a side business. DuPont and Bayer assessed the threat Sanqing posed after its insecticide successes, leaving the industry braced for tougher competition.

• Sun Chengren reported that Sanqing had signed pesticide contracts with twenty-five countries worth approximately six billion dollars, and Wei Kang said the company would keep its focus on pharmaceuticals while cooperating with manufacturers such as Syngenta.
• Wei Kang told Sun Chengren that African Union countries and other nations wanted to import Sanqing medicines, and he outlined a strategy of selling both expensive original drugs and affordable generics overseas.
• DuPont’s directors confronted CEO Robert over the failure of their insecticide, while a Roche director withdrew from their proposed agricultural partnership and wrote off Roche’s earlier investment.
• Bayer executives acknowledged Sanqing’s strength in insecticides and animal medicine, then agreed to avoid direct competition and defend niche markets through product improvements.

Sanqing representatives met with African Union officials in Ethiopia to discuss introducing the company’s original and generic medicines to Feizhou. They agreed on prices for the original drugs and reviewed generic drug needs, while Gu Xian considered outsourcing production to meet demand.

• Sanqing’s success in supplying pesticides made its name widely known across Feizhou and prompted African officials to seek its medicines.
• Jemol welcomed Sun Chengren, Gu Xian, and the Sanqing team to the African Union headquarters in Ethiopia to discuss market expansion.
• An Ethiopian health official asked about Sanqing’s drugs and a Gene Drug for Sickle Cell Anemia, and Sun Chengren said its development was underway.
• Sun Chengren negotiated prices for Sanqing’s original drugs, keeping price reductions modest while emphasizing future Gene Drugs.
• Gu Xian recorded the requested generic drugs and considered using domestic contract manufacturers to supply Feizhou’s large market.

Salman and other wealthy patients from Desert Country traveled to China seeking treatment from Sanqing Pharmaceutical, prompting the company to begin developing a Gene Drug for Thalassemia. As Salman awaited treatment in Kun City, news of the delegation and Sanqing’s successes sparked widespread public excitement.

• Salman learned that Sanqing Pharmaceutical could develop a Gene Drug to treat his worsening Thalassemia and asked Crown Prince Mohammed to arrange a meeting.
• At a Dubai banquet, Sun Chengren promised Salman that Sanqing would develop a treatment, and Salman offered to fund the research and travel to China.
• Salman chartered a plane to bring Sun Chengren, Gu Xian, and a group of wealthy Desert Country patients to China for treatment.
• Wei Kang approved Salman’s request, and Sanqing’s Gene Laboratory began an all-out effort to develop a Gene Drug for Thalassemia.
• Salman settled into Kun City’s Hilton Hotel while the other patients received care at Kun City First People’s Hospital and explored Sanqing’s products.
• Chinese media reported on the patients’ arrival and Sanqing’s achievements, prompting enthusiastic reactions from netizens.

Syngenta President Wang De pursued a partnership with Three Purities to use gene editing to develop high-yield crops. After the companies agreed to cooperate, their teams rapidly created gene-edited soybean samples and planted them for trials, leaving their performance unknown.

• Wang De decided Syngenta should work with Three Purities on gene-edited crops and called Sun Chengren to propose a partnership.
• Sun Chengren reported the proposal to Wei Kang, who approved a cross-industry strategic partnership.
• Wang De and the Syngenta seed team traveled to Kun City, signed an agreement with Three Purities, and formed a joint project team focused first on soybeans.
• The project team targeted the “Sweet 10” and “Sweet 15” genes, and Three Purities' biologists developed edited soybean seed samples in two weeks.
• Wang De brought the samples to Syngenta's Lu Province base, where staff planted them in a rapid-breeding facility for trials.

Huang Qin and Liu Dan presented Sanqing’s gene-edited crop results and the commercial promise of the new seeds. Meanwhile, Sanqing arranged to outsource generic-drug production to Divine Land Pharmaceutical, giving Xie Wei a path out of the company’s financial crisis and leaving him ready to negotiate better raw-material prices.

• Huang Qin reported that Sanqing’s insect-resistant corn and insect- and drought-resistant rice had achieved strong results, and he outlined further research into improving rice quality.
• Liu Dan praised the joint team’s work and described the potential economic benefits of widely adopting the new seeds.
• Xie Wei received notices of steep raw-material price increases, which threatened Divine Land Pharmaceutical after it had accepted low-price centralized procurement bids.
• After learning Sanqing was seeking generic-drug contract manufacturers, Xie Wei eagerly prepared for an inspection and hoped the partnership could help transform his company.
• Gu Xian and Zhao Xiaojie inspected Divine Land, approved its facilities and pricing, and agreed to begin trial production and six months of stability testing before granting formal approval.
• With Sanqing’s potential orders in view, Xie Wei resolved to negotiate more favorable prices with the API companies.

Shu Xin, who suffered from severe seasonal allergic rhinitis, joined a clinical trial for Three Purities' new long-acting allergy medicine and found that it quickly stopped her symptoms. She learned the medicine only blocked her allergic reaction, but hoped to use it after the trial once it reached the market.

• Shu Xin struggled with worsening allergic rhinitis as willow and poplar fluff filled Capital City and read online complaints about drifting catkins.
• Three Purities announced a Phase III trial for a new allergy drug, and Shu Xin registered and booked an appointment at a partner hospital.
• After a doctor confirmed her condition and gave her one sustained-release pill, Shu Xin's congestion, itching, and sneezing stopped within minutes.
• Shu Xin slept well and remained symptom-free for a week, then returned to the hospital and learned the medicine had only suppressed her allergy temporarily.
• Shu Xin asked the doctor from Ning City whether plane tree catkins or willow catkins were worse, and he advised her to avoid drifting catkins altogether.

Shu Xin’s praise of Three Purities’ allergy medicine sparked a viral discussion about the company’s lesser-known products, including a hemostatic spray and depilatory cream. After netizens blamed Three Purities’ marketing team for failing to advertise its medicines, Wei Kang promised to announce future releases widely and learned that three new cardiovascular drugs had entered Phase III trials.

• Shu Xin posted about how Three Purities’ anti-allergy medicine relieved her rhinitis, and other clinical trial participants and patients praised the company’s everyday medicines.
• Boundless Desert shared a video showing Three Purities’ hemostatic spray quickly stopping a soldier’s bleeding, prompting netizens to ask how they could get it.
• Netizens searched Three Purities’ website, found depilatory cream and other products, and flooded Wei Kang’s homepage with complaints about the company’s lack of advertising.
• Wei Kang had the operations team promise to publicize every future drug release, calming the online uproar.
• Wei Kang received news that Three Purities’ three new cardiovascular disease drugs had entered Phase III clinical trials.