"Stout, did you find something?" Upon hearing Stout's words, Harleen Knight's eyes lit up.
Others in the conference room turned their attention to Stout as well, their faces filled with curiosity.
"Yes!" Stout nodded in response. "There's an additional ingredient in the problematic pill."
"Although this ingredient has some effect on very specific cancers, its side effects are significant. At a certain dosage, it can lead to death." He continued to explain, "If I remember correctly, this ingredient should have been banned a few years ago. I don't understand why it's present in Wild Swan Pharma Solutions' product."
The people around them gasped in shock at his revelation.
"I have a question, sir," the department manager responsible for testing at Wild Swan Pharma spoke up after a while. "Our company conducts sample testing on all products before they are stored. If what you said is true, why couldn't we detect it?"
"This ingredient is very similar to common targeted therapy drugs, and the amount in each pill is minimal. It's difficult to detect through routine testing alone." Stout explained.
As he spoke, he quickly jotted down a note on paper and handed it over. "Try testing it using this method."
The department manager looked at the note, surprise evident on his face. Experts could recognize each other's competence at a glance, and the note Stout had written revealed his expertise in the field. Moreover, the method he suggested was indeed something they had overlooked.
"Mr Hall, you should personally take your team to try this method!" Harleen spoke up.
"Alright!" The man nodded and walked towards the testing area.
"Boss, it might not be that simple," Stout said to Billy after a while. "I can't yet figure out the motive behind this."
"This ingredient requires complex processes to refine. If their goal was simply to sabotage Wild Swan Pharma, it wouldn't be necessary to go through all this trouble."
"Yeah," Billy nodded thoughtfully.
In less than twenty minutes, the manager returned with a shocked expression and looked at Harleen.
"Ms Knight, it's true. The batch of problematic pills indeed contains an extra ingredient. Furthermore, following the method provided by this gentleman, I also checked the three main raw materials of our company's products. In the end, we found this ingredient in the most important of those semi-finished materials."
As soon as he finished speaking, a middle-aged man sitting at the conference table collapsed to the ground in panic, sweat drenching his face. He continued to mutter, "How could this happen... it can't be..."
Everyone turned to look; the middle-aged man was Johnny Stephenson, the Deputy General Manager responsible for procurement.
"Mr Stephenson, do you have something to say?" Harleen looked at the man.
"... Ms Knight, I... I'm sorry for the company..." Johnny Stephenson struggled to get up from the floor.
"What's going on?"
"It's... it's Ashton Erickson..." Johnny Stephenson trembled as he spoke.
"Who is Ashton Erickson?"asked Harleen.
"He's the owner of the company that supplies the semi-finished materials our company recently started using..." Johnny Stephenson said shakily.
"Why did you suddenly change suppliers?" Harleen's brows furrowed again.
"Ashton Erickson offered prices one-third lower than our previous supplier's, and... and I had the quality control department test their products and didn't find any issues, so I..." Johnny Stephenson continued.
"Just because of the lower price?" Harleen Knight's tone turned stern. "Did you take bribes from them?"
Johnny Stephenson dropped to his knees, trembling all over.
Comments
The readers' comments on the novel: The War God's Homecoming