Chapter 368 - 249: Killing Blow

A fated destiny, set on an irreversible path of mutual destruction...

At this, Professor Miller's expression finally changed.

He had raised those questions to disrupt Jiang He's train of thought and provoke an emotional outburst, just like with Wen Xuyang.

But Jiang He was terrifyingly calm. Not only did he perfectly neutralize the attack, but he'd even slapped Miller right back.

'Do you know how much a slap like that can hurt an old man? You don't. You only care about your own paper.'

Professor Miller took a deep breath and raised his hand to the chairman, preparing to forcibly end the technical discussion.

"Trying to end things already? Professor Miller, isn't it a little too soon?"

Jiang He's tone suddenly turned cold.

"I believe we've had a more than sufficient discussion on the technical aspects of the model. The facts show that my SAP prediction model is logically sound and clinically viable. Not only does it not have the so-called 'fatal flaws' you mentioned, but it is also far ahead of any existing evaluation systems."

"So, let's return to the original question. If this paper is technically unassailable, then why was it rejected?!"

Jiang He clicked his presentation remote.

A timeline chart appeared on the large screen.

"A while ago, our team submitted this paper for the journal's preliminary review. Soon after, we received a rejection notice. The reasons for rejection were the same extremely flimsy accusations Dr. Carter just read out."

Immediately after, another webpage screenshot popped up on the screen.

"The ridiculous thing is, right after we received our rejection notice, Professor Miller's lab high-profilely announced they were advancing a research project on 'Early Risk Stratification of Acute Pancreatitis Based on Transcriptomics.' And the technical roadmap and core biomarker targets they published for this project are a perfect, complete, and total match for our rejected paper!"

The entire hall fell into a dead silence.

Jiang He confronted Professor Miller directly. "Professor Miller, do you people think that just because you control the review channels of top journals, you can arbitrarily hand a death sentence to a Chinese study? Then you can just slap a Hopkins label on it and brazenly turn it into your own research achievement? Are you so arrogant now that you won't even bother with a basic cover-up? You're just going to steal it outright?!"

In the back rows of the auditorium, a few independent scholars from Europe began to talk in low voices, their gazes toward Professor Miller filled with scrutiny.

From off-stage, Hayes shouted, "That's complete nonsense! You're making this all up! Similar research directions are common in the scientific community. You have no concrete evidence to prove we saw your data!"

"No evidence? Dr. Hayes, do you really think I'd dare to stand here armed with nothing but suspicion?"

Jiang He jutted his chin toward Su Zhi.

Su Zhi immediately displayed two scanned documents, both bearing high-level official seals, on the large screen.

"On the left is the PCT international patent application receipt issued by the World Intellectual Property Organization, or WIPO. Thanks to the efficient processing by the China National Intellectual Property Administration, we have already secured a priority date for the international patent on the model's core algorithm and biomarker combination."

"And on the right is a notice of investigation and submission freeze from the editorial board of *The Lancet*. Just forty-eight hours ago, the board officially initiated a research misconduct investigation into the paper submitted by Professor Miller's team and has completely frozen the publication channel for this project."

"If you are all truly innocent, can anyone tell me what this letter of investigation is all about?!"

It was Mjolnir, brought down upon those who asked for it!

A secured PCT patent priority, an official freeze from *The Lancet*—the evidence was ironclad!

Countless foreign scholars looked at Professor Miller in disbelief.

Could this world-renowned professor of surgery really have committed such a despicable act of academic plagiarism?

Under the weight of their stares, Professor Miller remained silent.

After a moment, he stood up, heaved a deep, pained sigh, and said, "Mr. Jiang, your accusations are very serious... and the evidence you've presented is, indeed, authentic."

The entire audience: "???"

'He actually admitted it?!'

But Professor Miller's tone quickly shifted. "However, Mr. Jiang, you've misunderstood. The person who committed this act that has brought shame upon the entire academic community is a researcher in my lab. His name is Wang Qian. He's of Asian descent—to be precise, he was once a Chinese scholar himself."

As soon as he said this, the atmosphere in the conference hall became delicate.

Anyone with half a brain could tell that the distinguished professor was about to sacrifice a pawn to save the king.

But everyone held their tongue, sharing a tacit understanding.

Offending a Chinese-American researcher was a much smaller price to pay than toppling the golden reputation of Hopkins.

"Wang Qian has worked in my lab for several years. He is desperate to stay in the United States and urgently needed a top-tier paper with explosive impact to prove his worth. I admit that, as his mentor, I have been busy with clinical work recently and failed to supervise him properly. I never imagined that while he was responsible for processing preliminary review manuscripts, he would see your paper and, driven by personal gain, copy the core data behind my back!"

Professor Miller turned to face the European scholars in the audience. "What pains me even more is that he even forged my electronic signature to get this plagiarized report approved as an internal project in the lab's name! He was trying to make the situation irreversible."

"Mr. Jiang, that notice of investigation from *The Lancet* you showed earlier—do you know how it was initiated? In fact, before you filed your complaint, it was I who, after discovering the truth, personally destroyed the data Wang Qian forged. I then reported him by name to the ethics committee and the journal's editorial board myself! It was I who requested that the paper be frozen!"