A controversy has erupted after two sisters exposed their father's affair with a student.
On September 9, the South China Morning Post reported that the 20-year-old and 15-year-old sisters revealed their father, Fu Lei, a 47-year-old professor at Wuhan University’s School of Chemistry and Molecular Sciences, has been involved with his doctoral student, Zheng Mengqi, 35, since 2016. Fu Lei currently serves as the vice president and a standing committee member of Anhui University.
The sisters claimed in their statement that Zheng, who had a boyfriend at the time, approached Fu Lei, who is married. They discovered their father's relationship in 2018 when they noticed that both he and Zheng were using characters from the Japanese anime 'Detective Conan' as their online profile pictures. They also reported witnessing Zheng contacting Fu Lei on holidays and sending aggressive messages to their mother.
Zheng continued to meet with Fu Lei even after marrying a university colleague in 2023. The sisters revealed that two years ago, Fu Lei left the family, and their mother has since raised them alone while managing a mortgage, during which she lost 15 kilograms.
The elder sister sought to confront Fu Lei, who had long refused to pay child support, by attending a seminar at Wuhan University. She managed to get him to sign an agreement to pay 5,000 yuan (approximately $700) monthly in child support.
Fu Lei's annual salary is reported to exceed 1 million yuan (about $140,000).
The sisters also alleged that Fu Lei and Zheng misappropriated university research funds. They claimed Fu Lei acted as a ghostwriter for major academic journal articles, while the key experiments for papers published in journals like Nature Materials and the Journal of the American Chemical Society were conducted by students, yet Fu Lei was listed as the first author.
Additionally, they alleged that he required students to return research funds to designated accounts and reimbursed personal expenses such as taxi fares, meals, and living costs under the guise of 'material testing fees' and 'conference participation fees.'
Zheng obtained her doctorate in 2018, became an associate professor in 2020, and was promoted to full professor the following year. She has also been selected for a national youth talent support program.
As the controversy grew, Wuhan University announced on September 3 that it had received related reports on August 19 and would conduct an investigation. Anhui University, where Fu Lei is currently employed, has also initiated an inquiry. Both universities plan to release their findings once the investigation is complete.
So far, Fu Lei and Zheng have not publicly addressed the allegations and continue to hold their positions.
Local netizens expressed sympathy for the sisters' suffering but also speculated that their mother might be the actual author of the exposé due to the wording used in the statement.
The claims made in the exposé have not yet been verified. The South China Morning Post noted that if the allegations are found to be exaggerated, the whistleblowers could face defamation charges.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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