The most beautiful space

68 Anti-beautiful acid

Su Tong wasn't surprised. Given the spatial modifications, her skin could be so severely damaged in such a short time. If the purpose was disfigurement, then the disfiguring effect was incredibly potent. Without the spatial spring water, Su Tong would likely have become a truly repulsive and ugly woman. However, since Xie Chengjing described her skin's recovery as a miracle, without her needing to explain, then whatever the toxins, chemicals, or toxic substances were initially, it was all just a matter of seeking an explanation to avoid being disfigured in vain, and to punish the perpetrator.

Looking at Xie Chengjing's serious and cold expression, Su Tong knew that he was indeed very concerned about this matter. "So the contents of that bottle of water match the urine test results? What exactly was in it, and who went to such lengths to frame me?"

Xie Chengjing countered, "Do you know about the Philande Company?"

Su Tong was a little confused as to why he asked this, but she still answered, "Yes, I know. It's a well-known domestic skincare and cosmetics company. Its subsidiary, Filantio, is a rising first-tier skincare brand in China."

Xie Chengjing nodded, picked up Su Tong's computer from the side, typed "Jade Beauty Project" into the search bar, and asked Su Tong again, "So, have you heard of this?"

Su Tong shook her head, and Xie Chengjing clicked the search bar. The first search result was the term "Jade Beauty Project." Xie Chengjing opened it and gestured for Su Tong to look.

The Jade Beauty Project, officially known as the Flander Jade Beauty Series R&D Project, was a new generation of skin care product R&D work undertaken by Flander in 20xx, which once caused a sensation in the industry.

Su Tong thought to herself, "That was six years ago. I was about to graduate from university and was doing a busy internship at a company. The company I was interning at didn't really deal with cosmetics and skincare products, so I wouldn't have paid attention to these kinds of news."

The Jade Beauty Project is based on a skin-beautifying bio-acid extracted from the nectar of a plant (later named the Phantom Flower, which has not been rediscovered since this accidental discovery and is suspected to be extinct) that was accidentally discovered by a botanist invited by the company during research activities deep in the rainforest. The goal is to develop new skin-beautifying chemical substances. The objective is to transform this plant acid into a substance that, once successful, will be named Jade Beauty Acid. This will allow women who use Jade Beauty Acid, either internally or externally, at different concentrations of diluted solutions, to experience comprehensive skin activation and improvement, achieving the flawless, jade-white skin described in classical Eastern literature.

This chemical substance, hyaluronic acid, was used to create a revolutionary new generation of skincare products, surpassing most domestic and foreign companies and making Filand's Filandio a leading international brand. With full financial and technical support from Filand, the hyaluronic acid project initially progressed well, achieving promising results in its first clinical trial. However, it was later shelved due to internal company conflicts and funding issues.

Below is further information about the participants in the Jade Beauty Project, the progress at different stages, and the interim publication of results. It can be seen that the project was progressing smoothly and even developed to the point where it was almost ready to publish results, but it came to an abrupt end at the most successful point, which is really strange.

However, Su Tong was still somewhat puzzled: "Does my matter have anything to do with this?"

Xie Chengjing nodded, took out a USB drive and plugged it into Su Tong's laptop. After entering the special password for the USB drive and opening the relevant files, he said, "When the Jade Man Project was at its most successful, its lead researcher, Dr. Ma Yang, creatively made a major modification to the molecular chain. The resulting bio-acid modified product achieved good results and was called Jade Man Acid 1.0 by Dr. Ma. Although the effect was still far from the so-called Jade Man level, it was indeed quite good in real life."

He then opened a folder of images. “These are before-and-after photos from clinical use. There were 47 women aged 18 to 40 who were clinical users. It was only a short-term topical application, but the results were very good. Please note that these are real before-and-after photos from clinical use, not the photoshopped images found in some advertisements.”

Su Tong looked at dozens of before-and-after photos from users. Considering that this was only after one use, the effect on skin texture and tone was indeed very effective. The skin tone became noticeably whiter, and the skin texture was visibly smoother. However, "If that's the case, a product of this caliber should have already caused a buying frenzy. How come this plan was quietly shelved in the end? It shouldn't be due to the so-called funding problem, right?"

Xie Chengjing looked at her and moved the cursor to another folder. "Be prepared, I'm going to show you another set of pictures now."

Su Tong didn't understand what he meant, but when she saw the several sets of pictures in another folder that Xie Chengjing opened, she understood why Xie Chengjing wanted her to be mentally prepared. There were only a few pictures in this set, all of them were of skin from different parts of the human body, and without exception, they were all ulcerated and oozing pus. You could even smell the rotting odor just by looking at the pictures. They were so disgusting that a normal person would probably be disgusted to the point of not being able to eat.

“If an ordinary person had drunk the same bottle of water you drank back then, this would have been the effect.” Looking at Su Tong’s calm expression, but with a hint of unbearable emotion in her eyes, Xie Chengjing said indifferently, “After Dr. Ma Yang’s modification, the so-called Jade Man Acid 1.0 did have good clinical effects, but when stored at a completely low and suitable temperature, the modified substance itself underwent subtle structural changes.”

Xie Chengjing pointed to an image of a person's shoulder skin on the computer screen, where no normal skin could be seen at all. He said, "So, after the next two testers used it, their skin turned into what's shown in the picture. At the time, the Philande Company gave both testers a huge amount of compensation and used all its resources to suppress the negative impact of this incident. However, if that plant-based bio-acid hadn't undergone Dr. Ma Yang's modification, it would only have a slightly above-average effect. But after that modification, it couldn't be prevented from undergoing self-structural modification, turning into the kind of anti-human acid that can cause disfigurement. And the water you drank contained a trace amount of anti-human acid."

Xie Chengjing closed his laptop. "When we first discovered the 'Reverse Jade Acid' in the tests, we had no idea what it was. We only suspected that it was the cause of your skin problems. After testing it on mice, within an hour, the mice developed initial redness and bumps on their skin, followed by ulceration and pus discharge. The degree of ulceration varied depending on the individual. After autopsy, we found that the mice had basically no other symptoms, but they died due to complications caused by weakened skin resistance. Later, we connected this to a case from a couple of years ago where a female celebrity was disfigured and then committed suicide. That's when we investigated and found that this was a failed product of the Jade Project: Reverse Jade Acid."

"Philand Company, Lin Shanshan, anti-jade beauty acid..." Su Tong had a flash of inspiration, "I suddenly remembered, it seems that the wealthy family background of Lin Shanshan exposed in the media is..."

Xie Chengjing confirmed her association, "Lin Shanshan is the daughter of the current CEO of Philande Company."

His gaze was calm as he looked at Su Tong's face, which had recovered considerably. "I'm so glad you weren't seriously injured."

He was completely serious just a moment ago, but now he suddenly became so tender, and the transition between the two states was seamless. Su Tong could only smile and say, "Yes, I'm also very fortunate. After all, being disfigured or even dying is something no one would want. Also, thank you very much."

Then she asked, "Although anti-jade acid is related to the Philand Company, even if Lin Shanshan had a motive to deal with me, she wouldn't have gone so far as to attack me directly like this. She personally handed me that bottle of water. Could it be that she's trying to use people's preconceived notions to make us think that she gave me the water directly, so the culprit can't be her, when in fact it is? But," Su Tong herself felt that what she said was a bit too emotional, and besides, she didn't really know much about Lin Shanshan, it was just based on a bit of intuition, "I really don't think she's that kind of person."

Hearing her speak with such certainty, which was rare for her, Xie Chengjing looked at her and asked, "Don't you dislike her? How can you trust her so much?"

Su Tong met his gaze without flinching: "How could I not like her?"

“You’ve always had it,” Xie Chengjing’s voice held an undeniable persuasive power, making it impossible not to believe him, “because she likes me and pursues me without any attempt to hide it, so you’ve never liked her, at most you just think she’s not a bad person.”

After Su Tong was rendered speechless by his two simple sentences that completely hit the nail on the head, Xie Chengjing returned to the serious topic: "However, she is indeed not the culprit, and she is also very afraid of being misunderstood. During the investigation, she has been trying her best to find the mastermind and clear her name. As for who it is, I have a general idea now. I will tell you all at once after we have dealt with it."

Just like when he saw Su Tong's face covered in purplish-red bumps three days ago, he gently touched the last slightly raised, light red bump on Su Tong's forehead with his index finger. Seeing that Su Tong didn't seem to be in any pain, he continued, "This kind of thing won't happen again. Just focus on getting better. There's still filming work waiting for you. Aren't you going to A country to film next week? All the conspiracies and schemes are just the envy of losers. All you need to do is make sure you reach the top."

His words were so powerful that they inspired a sense of pride in everyone. Indeed, those who resort to such tricks are merely petty people who cannot achieve what one has. As long as you strive to do better, you are nothing to worry about. However, looking at Xie Chengjing's cold face and icy gaze, Su Tong wondered how many conspiracies and schemes he had gone through to reach his current cold and powerful state. Su Tong nodded, "Yes, I will try my best."

Xie Chengjing's gaze softened slightly. "However, there are two things you need to do before you go to Country A."