Gotham, late February.

When the winter snow meets the spring sun, the water seeps into the soil and creates a sticky mud.

Several pitch-black SUVs were driving on the road on the outskirts of Gotham City, with license plates written in blue on a white background and the words "For offcial ues only" at the bottom, making it clear that these vehicles were federal official vehicles used exclusively for official activities.

As for the passengers, the composition is quite complex, including White House think tanks, university professors hired from within the system, and heads of various departments of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration — including but not limited to the director of the Center for Food Review and Research, the director of the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, and the director of the Center for Biologics Review and Research.

Unlike its counterparts in other countries, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has an astonishing scope of authority, from food, drugs, vaccines, and medical equipment imported and exported throughout the United States, to veterinary drugs, beauty cosmetics, and bottled water, as long as it is related to the health of citizens, the FDA has decisive authority.

Even huge pharmaceutical giants such as Johnson & Johnson and Bayer have to pay 12% of their smiling faces to face the FDA's scrutiny, for fear that they will not be able to do anything and be put in small shoes.

And at this moment, these heads and minds who can stomp their feet and cause earthquakes in the pharmaceutical industry in the United States are huddled in SUVs, looking through the car window, at a factory on the outskirts of Gotham City.

The three-story factory looks rather rudimentary, with four walls just built and a rough roof at the top.

At the back of the factory, there are several large machines parked at the construction site, and a group of construction workers are busy walking through them, seemingly intending to continue building a workshop to match it.

"For God's sake, isn't this memetic company even fully factory-built?" The FDA adviser couldn't help but complain: "What are we here for?" ”

"For the instructions of the top, for the sake of capital, and for the future of the country." A retired Wesleyan professor said in a relaxed and blunt manner: "Actually, this is also your fault, people just applied for a patent and published a paper, and you rushed over in a hurry, without giving any time to prepare." ”

The bureaucrats of the FDA could not help but be silent, and in the past, they used to sit in their offices and wait for the flattering food and drug manufacturers to hand in their reports, where would they be like today, with all the staff out to review a small company that did not even have a fully built factory.

"But where the hell did this Leon come from?" The White House think tank broke the silence and flipped through the folder with a frown, "Nanyang Chinese, I just had a household registration last year, and now I only have a high school degree..."

"Geniuses don't always play their cards according to common sense, don't they?" The old professor said casually: "Maybe he is like Bill Gates, tinkering with these things out of the garage." ”

"Don't laugh," the White House thinker said with a wry smile: "Even geniuses like Bill Gates and John Carmack who can make amazing inventions in the garage must be supported by complete equipment." Moreover, the research and development of medical achievements are not comparable to the research and development of IT technology, which requires massive experimental data and financial support. ”

"Could it be that you suspect that this Leon is a spy sent by a certain force?" The old professor jokingly said: "Even if he is a spy, you come and tell me, which force can come up with such a bait as epoch-making technology, and is willing to come up with such a bait?" ”

Everyone rolled their eyes when they heard this, but they didn't hear the old professor's ridicule.

This complex team of investigators came to Gotham to inspect the so-called "memetic companies" and to meet with Leon on behalf of the federal government.

The advanced medical technology represented by stem cell culture, as well as the agricultural industrial revolution represented by hydroponic meat, will have a profound impact on the entire country.

The SUV moved forward slowly, and the relevant documents were shown at the entrance checkpoint of the factory, and the security personnel who had already been notified naturally let the SUV drive to the front of the factory.

The investigators stepped out of the car, and instead of a large group of receptionists, they stood alone.

Wearing a white lab coat, Leon leaned lazily against the factory door frame, tossing bright red apples back and forth in his hands, and when he saw the car stop, he casually put the apples in his pocket, stood up, and greeted the investigators who got out of the car: "Hello, I'm Leon." ”

The investigation team was faintly headed by the deputy director of the FDA, even though this middle-aged brother had already seen Li Ang's relevant information, but when he saw the real person with his own eyes, he was still surprised by the other party's youth, and reached out to shake hands, "Hello, Li.... Uh, sir. ”

The deputy director originally wanted to call the other party a doctor or a professor, after all, the people who can stand here basically carry several top titles, and the most recent is also a master, and in Western society, adding a degree title that symbolizes the social elite in front of the name is a kind of respect.

"Just call me Leon, I'm still in a public high school." Li Ang is very open-minded, he also participated in the imperial examination and entered the palace examination when he traveled to the Tang Dynasty in his previous life, and he is not very enthusiastic about Western degree certificates.

"Okay, but with this first-author paper in the journal Nature, I'm afraid that countless scientific research institutions are rushing to hand you an olive branch, and it is a matter of minutes to get a degree." The deputy director got off the donkey down the slope and skimmed over the topic, "You also know what we are here for, right?" ”

Leon nodded, turned and entered the factory, "Come with me." ”

The investigators looked at each other and followed him in.

Upon entering the factory, the investigators discovered that the interior was quite spacious, with pillar tubes embedded in the ceiling dome and pure white tiles on the floor.

There wasn't much on the first floor, just four columnar cisterns side by side that stretched to the top of the third floor.

"SMC FRP water tank is equipped with remote liquid level electric valve, water level monitoring system, water tank automatic cleaning system and self-cleaning and disinfection system, which contains nutrient solution and sprays it on the hydroponic meat through the shower head."

On the second floor, there are rows of glass walls for hydroponic meat, which are designed to be 30 cm x 30 cm square sterile vessels for easy cutting and aesthetics.

The investigators looked at the vessels and asked, "What is the growth rate of this meat?" ”

Li Ang replied: "In a standard sterile vessel, about 3KG of pure beef can be grown per hour, and from the optimized distribution, fat color quality, to the frost level of marble muscle texture, all of which are completely in line with the A5 level." ”

The White House thinker standing in the corner was shocked when he heard this, he roughly swept over the columns of glass walls, his mind turned sharply, and he quickly calculated: "Each wall has 400 standard utensils, and there are a total of 50 walls here, which means that it can produce 60 tons of beef per hour, and the fully mechanized factory can be operated 24 hours a day, 1,440 tons a day, 510,000 tons a year, and this is just a factory!" ”

The White House think tank blurted out and asked, "And what about the cost?" ”

Li Ang replied: "Unlike tumor cells, which need fetal bovine serum for cultivation, hydroponic meat needs nothing more than nutrient solution during the growth process, and if it is equipped with a filtration and circulation system for nutrient solution, the cost price is about 3 US dollars/500 kg." ”

In other words, the cost price is almost none.

The FDA advisors frowned and asked, "What kind of bovine are the cells that were the initial samples?" ”

"Kurome and Tajima cows." Leon took a thick sheet of experiment records and handed it to the advisors.

"Wagyu beef....", the White House thinker turned his head and said, "Can you use other cattle breeds as meat samples?" ”

"Yes, the cultivation process is exactly the same, whether it is tendons, bones, fat, it can be made through directional guidance, but pure meat is more convenient," says Leon: "In order to harmonize the tastes of the general public, hydroponic meat will take the same meat as other breeds – but it takes a little more effort to patent the breed." ”

The people present are all professionals, and after looking at the side, it is generally certain that there is no problem with the production process of hydroponic meat, and the health problems at the genetic level can be slowly investigated through experiments, but the process that should be followed still has to be followed.

Several FDA employees stepped forward and took away a bunch of substrate meat samples, experimental records, and process line descriptions of hydroponic meat.

Only at this time, this not very formal field trip was half completed, and the next step was for the White House think tank to come forward and negotiate with Leon.

The group walked straight up to the third floor and sat down in a modest office. In line with the principle of "harmony makes money", the next contract was roughly finalized.

First of all, hydroponic meat can be marketed, but it will take a while. It takes time for academic institutions to explain the principles of hydroponic meat, for the media to promote hydroponic meat so as not to scare the population, and for the federal government to transform and upgrade agriculture.

Science and technology are the primary productive forces, this law can be used everywhere, the production capacity of hydroponic meat is completely explosive in traditional agriculture, this explosion is undoubted, revolutionary.

The White House think tank has hinted that the federal government will act as an intermediary for meme companies to cooperate with meat giants to gradually tighten the grip on traditional agriculture and animal husbandry, reduce the number of employees and reduce the scale of the industry, a process that may need to be counted in "years".

This is also something that cannot be helped, the animal husbandry in the central Great Plains implicates the jobs of countless citizens, and their jobs need to be arranged, what if these hillbillies who have lost their jobs riot?

Fortunately, the members of the investigation team are all professionals, and there are no anti-intellectuals and anti-technologists, and no one will jump out to accuse Leon of violating citizens' right to work.

The issue of hydroponic meat was largely discussed, and the atmosphere at the scene was much more relaxed, and the White House think tank hinted that the federal government was willing to fund the establishment of a laboratory for the follow-up research of hydroponic meat and stem cell culture.

The patent for hydroponic meat alone can give the newly established meme company a potential value of tens of billions of dollars, not counting the stem cell cultivation owned by Leon and the subsequent artificial organ technology.

"What is the most valuable thing in the 21st century? Talent. Li Ang complained silently in his heart, indicating that he already had a private laboratory, and politely declined the other party's invitation.

The other party was still unwilling, and offered to come forward to help Li Ang cooperate with other scientific research institutions and recruit scientific researchers to fill the team.

Again, Leon denied the request.

He already has a decent group of assistants.

With a click, the office door opened, and a woman in office attire walked in, holding a stack of reports.

She is Rebecca, one of Leon's assistants.

The witch who had lived for more than two hundred years still looked so young and beautiful, and she bent down slightly and placed the report in front of Leon, her golden hair filled with a faint fragrance.

In the eyes of others, Rebecc's image at this time can be regarded as a decent working woman, with a good figure, a delicate face, a dignified and gentle attitude, and no strong woman-like aggressiveness.

Many investigators were envious of Leon, and in addition to understanding, there was a little more contempt for male creatures out of empathy.

What is the secretary doing if you have something~

Rebecca turned around and looked at the normal humans in high positions behind the conference table, a complex emotion in her eyes.

She remembered the body's origin.

Leon fulfilled his promise to reshape Rebecca's body, and the method he adopted was really "shaping" in the literal sense.

The skin on the body is made of artificial leather cultivated from stem cells, the tendons are artificial tendons cultivated from stem cells, and the bones are no longer calcium, all of which are replaced by light anti-corrosion alloys, and Rooney runes are densely engraved on them to support weight.

What's even more terrifying is that her blood vessels are no longer simply transporting blood, but act as magic circuits, drawing aether from her surroundings at all times.

Her magic affinity was beyond imagination, and the large-scale spells that used to require long chanting could be unleashed with a wave of her hand, and she could feel the aether whispering in her ears between breathing and meditating.

She is no longer flesh and blood, no longer simply a "human", but more like an elaborate doll, dancing in a prison of steel.

Rebecca had never been stronger than the price she had paid, and she even thought she was now good enough to take on an entire army of Inquisition raiders and win the battle.

This young Chinese in a white lab coat, sitting behind her desk, less than a meter away from Rebecca, only needs to turn on the magic circuit to burst out a pillar of light composed of pure magic and completely tear apart the cramped office.

Leon looked at Rebecca's smiling expression with interest, gently pulled her collar, and said in her ear: "If you want to do it, just take advantage of it now, even if you can't kill me, at least you can kill all these high-ranking officials from Washington." ”

A hint of struggle flashed in Rebecca's eyes, and after all, she just pulled Leon's hand away reservedly, "You're too worried." ”

She turned and left the house, leaning against the railing to look at the wall of flesh below.

Rebecca's lips lifted lightly, and she let out a cloudy breath.

It was only at this time that the experimental assistant suddenly realized that the way Li Ang looked at her was exactly the same as the way he looked at hydroponic meat.