In Jiang He’s answer section, the handwriting was neat, with no signs of correction:

[Diagnosis: 1. Acute Obstructive Suppurative Cholangitis (AOSC), severe shock. 2. Biliary pancreatitis.]

[Basis: Reynolds’ Pentad (incomplete), drop in blood pressure indicates decompensated shock...]

[Treatment: While managing shock, immediately perform biliary decompression. The primary choice is emergency surgery to relieve the obstruction.]

Upon seeing these three lines,

Professor Zhang slammed his hand on the table. "Excellent!"

It made everyone jump.

"What a kid!" Professor Zhang was thrilled. "He saw right through it at a glance! He even pointed out that the pancreatitis was secondary! His insight is incredible!"

"The key is this line—"

Professor Li pointed to the last line. "While managing shock, perform biliary decompression. Many students, even if they get the diagnosis right, would write to first manage the shock and operate only after the blood pressure has stabilized. But with a condition like AOSC, waiting for blood pressure to return to normal is a death sentence! The shock can only be corrected by draining the pus! This kind of dialectical thinking is impressive!"

After he finished speaking,

the grading room fell into a brief silence.

Everyone stared at the exam paper, feeling a sense of shock.

If a fifth-year intern had answered at this level, they would have been gratified.

But this was just a third-year student.

Moreover, he had only taken forty minutes.

This meant that the moment he read the question, his mind had already constructed a complete pathological model and treatment plan without any hesitation.

This couldn’t be explained away by merely having a solid foundation.

This was pure, unadulterated talent.

"This exam..."

Wang Xiaoqing didn’t even need to tally the points; she could only give it a perfect score.

"Professor Zhang, do you think..." She put down her pen hesitantly. "Could it be... that the exam was leaked?"

The moment she said this, the atmosphere turned awkward.

After all, getting a perfect score in forty minutes was just too unbelievable.

"Impossible." Professor Zhang flatly denied it. "A few of us finalized this exam just yesterday afternoon. It was only printed last night and has been locked in the confidential materials room ever since. Besides us, no one has seen it."

"Then could it be cheating?" another teacher muttered under their breath. "Like, with a cheat sheet or a phone?"

"A phone?" Professor Liu laughed. "What could he do, send a text? What could you even look up with that crappy internet speed? Besides, for a case analysis question like this, do you think you can find a ready-made answer on Baidu? Go on, try and find one for me."

Everyone thought about it and realized he was right.

This kind of comprehensive question tested logic, not rote memorization. There was nothing to copy even if you wanted to cheat.

"Besides, I don’t think there’s any need for suspicion."

Professor Li clasped his hands behind his back and looked at the exam on the table. "Just as Professor Liu said, this kid dared to save someone in a place like an internet cafe. That shows he really knows his stuff. What’s the point of cheating in the preliminaries? The semifinals are in a few days. If he didn’t have real skills, he’d be exposed immediately. Why bother?"

"That’s right." Wang Xiaoqing nodded. "It seems our university has truly produced an extraordinary student this year."

She picked up her red pen and drew two heavy lines under the bright red "100" at the top of the paper.

Just then, there was a knock on the grading room door.

A middle-aged man pushed the door open and walked in, a thermos clutched in his arm.

It was the Director of the Student Affairs Office for the Clinical Medical School, Zhang Zhiyuan.

"Well, well, look at all the esteemed professors here."

As soon as Zhang Zhiyuan entered, he felt something was off about the atmosphere.

Everyone was gathered around a single table, a variety of incredible expressions on their faces.

"What’s going on? Did something big happen?" Zhang Zhiyuan leaned in curiously. "Did the students do so poorly this year that it’s got you all fuming?"

"Quite the opposite."

Wang Xiaoqing handed over the exam paper in her hand. "Old Zhang, you’re just in time. Weren’t you the one who put away Jiang He’s commemorative banner? Come, take a look at his exam."

"Jiang He?"

Zhang Zhiyuan’s eyes lit up the moment he heard the name.

He set down his thermos and took the exam paper.

Although he wasn’t an academic, seeing the paper covered in red check marks and that bright red 100-point score, he knew what had happened.

"A perfect score?" Zhang Zhiyuan said in admiration. "This Jiang He got a perfect score?"

"You bet." Professor Liu clapped Zhang Zhiyuan on the shoulder. "Old Zhang, if this student is nurtured properly, he’ll definitely become the pride of our Southern Medical University."

Zhang Zhiyuan looked at the exam paper in his hands, the smile on his face growing wider and wider until he was grinning from ear to ear.

"Excellent! Excellent! Excellent!"

He exclaimed "excellent" three times in a row, then carefully folded the exam. Instead of returning it to Wang Xiaoqing, he slipped it directly into his briefcase.

Wang Xiaoqing was taken aback. "Hey! Old Zhang, what are you doing? I haven’t recorded the score yet!"

"You can record the score later. I need to take this paper with me."

Zhang Zhiyuan patted his briefcase and looked at the group mysteriously. "Do you know why I came here so late?"

"Why?"

"Someone specifically asked to see this exam paper."

"Who?"

"Yang Xu. The great Professor Yang."

Hearing this name, another stir went through the grading room.

Who was Yang Xu?

He was the top surgeon in the Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery at Southern Medical University’s affiliated hospital, and also notoriously known throughout the entire Medical School as the "Cold-Faced King of Hell."

His academic standards were absurdly demanding.

In recent years, he couldn’t even be bothered to mentor graduate students, let alone undergraduates.

"Yang Xu wants to see an undergraduate’s exam?" Professor Li found it incredible. "Didn’t he say he wasn’t taking on undergraduates these past few years?"

"That’s why I say it’s fate."

Zhang Zhiyuan smiled. "The day before yesterday, a patient with a pneumothorax was brought to the hospital and caught Professor Yang’s attention. He heard that a third-year student had saved the patient and was initially just a little interested. But then he heard the kid had also signed up for his group and was participating in the Clinical Thinking Competition. That’s when Professor Yang called me and said he absolutely had to see this kid’s preliminary exam paper."

At this point, Zhang Zhiyuan glanced at his briefcase, his eyes filled with anticipation.

"I was originally worried that if Jiang He scored a sixty or seventy on the prelims, I’d be too embarrassed to even place this exam on Professor Yang’s desk."

"But now,"

"One hundred points!"

Zhang Zhiyuan picked up his briefcase and gave a slight bow to the professors. "Thank you all for your hard work. I’ll treat you all to a meal another day! I have to hurry over to the hospital—Professor Yang is still waiting in his office!"

With that, he turned and left in a hurry.

The grading room door closed.

Leaving a room full of old professors staring at each other in dismay.

After a long moment, Wang Xiaoqing put her glasses back on and sighed. "The student has surpassed the master... the student has truly surpassed the master."

Professor Zhang also nodded. "This boy has a boundless future."

Outside the window, the night grew deeper.

But all the professors present knew that in the coming morning, a red announcement list would send shockwaves through the entire Nanshan Medical University.

This wasn’t like saving someone in an internet cafe, an event that had to be kept quiet.

This was a legitimate, perfect-score exam in a major competition.

It was the first time in many, many years.

And not only that, he had only taken forty minutes and was even personally singled out by Professor Yang, who wanted to see his paper.

This kid was terrifyingly brilliant! His potential was limitless!