Sisters, 20 and 15, publish 86-page expose accusing professor dad of decade-long affair with former student
Two sisters in China have published an 86-page document accusing their academic father of having a decade-long affair with one of his former doctoral students, while also raising allegations of academic misconduct and misuse of university research funds.
The sisters, aged 20 and 15, accused their father, Fu Lei, 47, of having an affair since 2016 with his former doctoral student Zeng Mengqi, 35, who is now a professor at Wuhan University.
Fu was previously a professor and doctoral supervisor at Wuhan University and is now a vice-principal at Anhui University, reported the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
Sisters say they discovered matching anime avatars
According to SCMP, the sisters said they first discovered the alleged affair in 2018, when they were aged 12 and seven, after noticing that Fu and Zeng were using matching profile pictures from the Japanese anime Detective Conan.
Fu allegedly used Conan as his avatar, while Zeng used Ai Haibara.
In the document, the sisters wrote: “Ai Haibara is a fictional character, but the family that Zeng destroyed is real.”
They also alleged that Fu would respond quickly to Zeng’s requests even while on family holidays, and that Zeng had sent provocative messages to their mother.
Zeng reportedly married a university colleague in 2023, but the sisters claimed that her relationship with Fu continued.
Mum allegedly left to support daughters alone
Two years ago, Fu allegedly left the family, leaving their mother to handle the mortgage and care for the two daughters alone.
The sisters said the stress caused their mother to lose 15kg.
According to SCMP, the elder sister later confronted Fu at a university leadership meeting and got him to sign an agreement to provide 5,000 yuan (about S$945) in monthly child support.
The report said Fu earns more than one million yuan a year.
Academic misconduct also alleged
The 86-page document also went beyond the alleged affair.
According to Sina, the sisters questioned Zeng’s academic integrity, raising allegations over research authorship, her rapid promotion and the misuse of research funds.
SCMP reported that Zeng completed her PhD in 2018, became an associate professor in 2020 and was promoted to professor a year later.
She has also been recognised under China’s National High-Level Talent Special Support Programme.
The sisters further alleged that Zeng had deprived other students of first authorship on academic papers and that Fu had ghostwritten articles for her in journals including Nature Materials and the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
None of the allegations has been proven.
Universities investigating
Wuhan University said on Sept 3 that it had received the whistle-blower materials on Aug 19 and that its disciplinary committee had formally accepted the case and launched an investigation.
The university said that if any wrongdoing was established, it would deal with the matter seriously in accordance with regulations and the law, and would make the investigation results public.
SCMP reported that Anhui University had also begun looking into the allegations involving Fu.
Neither Fu nor Zeng had publicly responded to the accusations at the time of SCMP’s report. No parties have been suspended from their positions.
The expose has sparked widespread discussion online, although some netizens questioned whether the document had actually been written by the sisters, suggesting that some parts sounded as though they may have been written by their mother.
Beijing lawyer Zhou Zhaocheng told SCMP that if the universities found evidence of professional ethics violations or academic misconduct, Fu and Zeng could face removal from their positions or dismissal.
However, he added that the whistle-blower could face defamation liability if the claims were found to have exaggerated or distorted the facts.
*This article was produced with AI assistance.
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