Wei Yong’s assistant said, “If it’s not urgent, I’ll get Mr. Wei to give you a call when he’s free.”

“Okay. Thanks a lot,” replied Qi Hui politely without hanging up the phone. He probed. “Oh yes. How’s the patent application for the project going?”

The assistant was unsurprised by this question. After all, Qi Hui had provided most of the data they needed for the patent application previously and Qi Hui probably knew what they were trying to do.

He replied easily. “I’ve already submitted the application a couple of days ago. I think it’ll get approved in half a month.”

Liu Qian had already submitted the patent application much earlier and Wei Yong had only just submitted it. It was no surprise Liu Qian had beaten them to it.

When Qi Hui did not react, the assistant asked. “Hello, Mr. Qi?”

Qi Hui snapped out of his thoughts. He pondered before deciding it was best to tell them about the patent problem.

The moment the assistant heard what he said, he promptly frowned. “Has it already gone through preliminary approvals? How could you do this to us? Don’t you know this is a confidential project?”

Qi Hui could not help feeling annoyed by the assistant’s self-righteous and indignant tone of voice. After all, the institute was shamelessly trying to steal the students’ research. Since the institute was very powerful in the academic world, he smiled and said apologetically, “I only just found out about the patent myself. The teacher in charge of the project applied for it without informing me in advance.”

Wei Yong’s assistant touched his brow as he contemplated. The patent meant a lot to Wei Yong, so he was bound to throw a fit when he learned of this.

The assistant said nothing and promptly hung up the phone.

When Qi Hui heard the mechanical dial tone over the phone, he put down the phone worriedly. He had worked hard to keep strong ties with the institute, but they would probably hate him for this from now on. Liu Qian was to blame for his predicament.

Meanwhile, at the National Research Institute of Science.

Shortly after Wei Yong’s assistant ended the call with Qi Hui, he received a call from someone he knew from the patent office.

The assistant asked. “If the official certificate has not been sent, is there any way I can stop a patent application?”

“If it has already been approved, then nope. Also, software-related patents provide protection from the day of application.”

The assistant tightened his grip on the phone powerlessly.

Before he could say a word, his friend continued. “Well, there’s still one way to kill the application.”

The assistant promptly asked hopefully. “How?”

“The applicant has to revoke the application.”

“This is probably impossible.” The assistant smiled and sighed.

They were trying to steal a patent from the students. If word got out, it would make the institute look like bullies.

“In that case, there’s nothing you can do about it. I’m sorry,” said his friend before ending the conversation.

Wei Yong’s assistant exhaled deeply before he turned to leave the office and headed to the laboratory.

When the assistant entered the laboratory, Wei Yong and the people in the laboratory were busy adjusting the system.

The assistant could only swallow his words and wait for Wei Yong to finish his work.

Wei Yong finally finished his work two hours later. He removed his glasses and wiped them as he looked at his assistant and asked. “Did you want to speak to me?”

The assistant acknowledged promptly. He glanced at the people around them without saying a word.

Wei Yong paused briefly before putting on his glasses and said, “Okay then. Let’s talk in the office.”