"Of the two of us, only the child I gave birth to can be sure that it is my child. ”
Talk show actor Yang Li once talked about such a "burden" on the show, which was a dialogue between her and her younger brother "mutual hatred".
Most people laughed it off at the time, but it was a problem for some families. As a senior DNA appraiser, Deng Yajun faces such disputes every day.
After a long time, she bluntly said: "I don't believe in love, I believe in desire even more." ”
What kind of profession is a DNA appraiser? What kind of stories has Deng Yajun faced?
DNA Profiler
Early one morning, a family of five came to the Zhongzheng Forensic Appraisal Institute in Beijing. A young couple brings their dragon and phoenix fetuses to get a paternity test.
The husband seemed preoccupied, while the wife looked slightly worried. The twin siblings and their young age did not know the meaning of the "paternity test" and were still playing in the hall.
They were greeted by the founder, Yajun Deng, an experienced veteran DNA examiner.
After her husband met Deng Yajun, she expressed his demand. He said that he felt that his son's appearance was really different from his own, and he suspected that the child was not his, so he came to do a paternity test.
Deng Yajun personally collected blood samples for them. The couple waited nervously. A few hours later, the results were in, and Deng Yajun handed them a report.
The husband turned to the last page and saw the conclusion that "the parent-child relationship is not established". His face turned pale, and he clutched the appraisal report to ask his wife to give him an explanation.
His wife looked incredulous, as the report showed that her daughter was indeed her husband's flesh and blood. She asked Deng Yajun: "How is this possible? They are twins!"
Deng Yajun told the couple that there was no problem with the appraisal report. Although rare, it is indeed possible for fraternal twins to have a father who is not alone.
Looking at the appraisal report in front of her, the wife had no choice but to confess to her husband. She said that she had been raped on her way home and that her son should have been pregnant at that time.
As a senior appraiser who has been in the industry for many years, Deng Yajun has long been accustomed to this situation.
She feels that the profession she is engaged in is actually peeking into the essence of human nature and facing the secrets that people hide.
As for why she pursued this profession, it has to start from when she was in college.
"Marriage Grinder"
In 1991, Deng Yajun was admitted to Xi'an Jiaotong University as his second choice. Deng Yajun, who was even afraid of caterpillars, had never thought that he would have to deal with corpses all day long in the future.
But Deng Yajun persevered and devoted himself to medical training. Moving 180-pound corpses, sawing bones, and cutting corpse pieces have become her daily routine.
In 2000, Deng Yajun was admitted to graduate school and joined the famous "Human Genome Project". Here, she was exposed to state-of-the-art DNA testing technology.
In order to further her studies, she resigned from public service and came to Beijing to study for a doctorate.
When SARS struck in 2003, Deng Yajun led a team to Guangzhou to collect samples, and finally successfully isolated the virus after 3 months.
A year later, when Indonesia struck the tsunami, she led a team to Thailand, where she helped local agencies identify more than 2,000 victims, with an 80 percent success rate.
In 2005, the state socialized part of the forensic business, and Deng Yajun became one of the first professional DNA appraisers.
As an appraiser, she often encounters very bloody stories.
A family once brought a child to do a paternity test, and they had to find out whether the child's father was his uncle or grandfather!
It is said that the family was going to live in a mess for the rest of their lives, but the tuition fees for the children's school made the family fight, and finally decided to take a paternity test.
The results of the examination showed that the child's physiological father was the child's grandfather.
There are also people who secretly spoiled the children of their first boyfriend, and begged Deng Yajun to fake the appraisal report for her to save her marriage. But Deng Yajun refused without hesitation.
Friends once teased her as a "marriage crusher". But in Deng Yajun's eyes, it was not her who really ruined the marriage, but a lie.
Deng Yajun said: "Sooner or later, the truth will come out to the world, I just let it be a little earlier." ”
As a veteran DNA expert, Deng Yajun is the exposer of these hidden truths.
Her profession is actually looking directly at the most naked side of human nature. In her eyes, the touching stories that people weave are like bubbles, which will eventually burst under the test of science.
Deng Yajun often said: "Science is so cruel and straightforward. It doesn't see color, it doesn't see status, it only believes in the truth, and it shows everything before your eyes mercilessly. ”
Faced with the various situations in the world he saw, Deng Yajun said that he "only believes in evidence, not stories". This is also her attitude towards all visitors.
Although he has faced countless cases of parents, there are still some things that will make Deng Yajun difficult to let go of for a long time.
The world in the eyes of the appraiser
A child named "Xiaoyu" left her with a lifelong memory.
Xiaoyu was 5 years old that year, and because of the need to settle down and enroll in school, the police came to the door and asked Deng Yajun to do a paternity test for the child and his father. His mother ran away from home shortly after he was born, and Xiaoyu has been living with his uncle for many years.
At that time, Xiaoyu's father was serving a prison sentence, and he wanted to make an appraisal for his son as soon as possible to solve his son's hukou problem, so as not to delay his child's schooling.
Come to the laboratory. Deng Yajun saw Xiaoyu. Xiaoyu looked very thin, with a bag of snacks in her hand, obviously in a hurry to come and didn't even bother to eat.
The result came out, and Xiaoyu's parent-child relationship with her father was not established! This made everyone stunned. Xiaoyu will lose the qualification to enter the household, and even going to school will become a problem, and Xiaoyu's father is very sad because of his wife's betrayal.
When Deng Yajun faced the result, he also had the idea of faking for a while. After all, she is a mother and is very sympathetic to Xiaoyu's experience. But she eventually restrained her selfishness, because this was her professional ethics and she had to respect the truth.
She didn't know what Xiaoyu's fate would be.
In Deng's long career, she has witnessed so much of the dark side of human nature that she has to be skeptical of some of the feelings in the world. But at the same time, she has also experienced those beautiful moments that make people cherish.
At that time, a father who was over half a hundred years old came to take his 16-year-old son for a paternity test, because people around him always said that the child did not look like him.
When he learned that the parent-child relationship was not established, the father was not as angry as everyone imagined.
He told Deng Yajun that after raising his son for so many years, he had already regarded the child as his own flesh and blood, and the father-son friendship between them could not be changed by blood.
Before leaving, the father begged Deng Yajun to seal the identification results in the archives, and he would never tell his children this fact for the rest of his life unless his son took the initiative to ask for it when he grew up.
The father said, "Birth is kindness, but isn't it more important to nurture kindness?" As long as the child always thinks that I am his biological father, we can be happy forever." ”
Deng Yajun admired this father very much. She also realizes that life is often full of necessity and compromise, and the world is inevitably unable to help itself. Some people choose to hide the truth to avoid family breakdown, while others have the courage to face it squarely and would rather bear the price of pain.
In people's eyes, Deng Yajun may seem ruthless. But she knows that the best way to protect the happiness of her family is to be honest with each other.
Only on the basis of truth can we have happiness in the true sense, otherwise the kind of family built on lies is doomed.
"Only by living in the sun can we stay away from the dark corners of life. This is Deng Yajun's thoughts after reading so many stories. She hopes that everyone can embrace the truth, goodness and beauty of life, instead of living in deception.
It is precisely because of this concept that she will insist on walking on the road of DNA identification for decades, leading the team to guide countless families to the direction of happiness.
The author thinks
Deng Yajun's career has witnessed the dark side of human nature, and also witnessed the bright side of human nature. She adhered to science, pursued the truth, and defended the happiness of her family with her professional ethics.
Even though she will face the cold eyes of many people, she still abides by her duty and guides people to get lost with love and responsibility. This is her unremitting pursuit of life, and it is also the most precious meaning of her career.
Information sources:
1. Phoenix Satellite TV "Cold and Warm Life: Paternity Test Secret File"
2. Deng Yajun's Weibo: @邓姐与鉴定的三二事
3. China News Weekly: "China's First Generation of Female DNA Appraisers: Thousands of Lies Can Be Debunked with a Paper Report"