Jiang He had just finished replying to Brother Sun when the phone in his hand rang.

Jiang He: "Hello, Dad."

His father chuckled. "Son, your counselor just called!"

Jiang He: "Yeah, I know."

His father suddenly shouted, "Honey! Where’s that pickle jar? Where did our pickle jar go?"

From the other end of the line, his mom’s voice came from a distance. "Threw it out! I threw it out a long time ago! Didn’t our son say we shouldn’t eat them? I smashed it that very night!"

His dad shouted again, "What about my cigarettes? The half-pack on the table?"

His mom replied, "Didn’t you flush them down the toilet yourself? You said you were going to quit!"

Only then did his dad speak back into the receiver, chuckling. "Did you hear that, son? We’re on our best behavior at home!"

A warmth spread through Jiang He’s heart. He said, "You and Mom are doing great."

"You’re doing even better!" his dad said. "You got a perfect score in that competition, first place in the whole university! Keep it up, son, but don’t work too hard. Let us know if you’re short on cash!"

After he hung up, his three roommates had already gathered around him.

"Old Jiang..." Li Zijian said. "A bet’s a bet. I’ll admit defeat. I’m not chasing girls during the National Day holiday. I’m with you."

Wang Bo nodded as well. "Same here. Count me in for the paper."

Chen Hao didn’t say anything, just grinned foolishly while his fingers flew across his phone screen.

Meanwhile, in the class group chat, the tide had turned.

[By the way, does anyone remember Li Wei from the class next door? What was his score?]

[Yeah! Where’s Li Wei? Wasn’t he being all arrogant?]

[Alright, everyone, on my command, let’s ask what Li Wei is up to!]

[What’s Li Wei up to?]

[What’s Li Wei up to?]

In a men’s dorm, Li Wei was resting.

He was curled up under his blanket, his phone long since turned off.

In truth, he had seen the rankings even earlier.

He had already gone to check long before Chen Hao did.

He was 18th, with 76 points.

To be honest, it was a pretty good score.

In that instant, he was ecstatic.

’I’m a lock for the semifinals!’

He had even planned out how he would humbly brag on his QQ Space and how he’d casually mention his rank in front of Cheng Xiyao.

However, when he saw Jiang He at the top of the list...

...the smile vanished from his face.

He immediately returned to his dorm, climbed into bed, and wrapped himself up.

His mentality was actually pretty good, though.

’Oh, well. So I got stomped on. It’s fine. I’ll just sleep it off, and everything will be okay.’

But he had class today.

’Heh heh, I’ll just take the day off.’

Heh, heh, heh heh...

As he chuckled to himself...

Li Wei, who had just turned twenty-one this year, suddenly felt immense pressure.

...

Back in the dorm, the celebration was still going strong.

Every so often, a random classmate would pop up to shower Jiang He with praise.

Jiang He muted them all and went about his business, brushing his teeth and washing his face.

First place with a perfect score. The result was just as he’d expected; there was nothing surprising about it.

He dried his face, hung up the towel, and turned to go back to his room.

"Old Jiang, I’m seriously impressed by your composure," Chen Hao couldn’t help but say, giving him a thumbs-up.

Jiang He pulled out his chair and sat down. "Move aside, I need to look something up."

"Look what up?" Chen Hao asked.

"That piece of clothing."

He opened the Taobao webpage, logged into his account, and clicked on "My Orders."

[Seller has shipped].

He clicked on the shipping details.

[08:30:00 Departed from Hangzhou Xiaoshan Distribution Center. Next stop...]

Seeing this line of text, Jiang He frowned.

The logistics in ’08 weren’t as developed as they would be in later years.

A typical cross-province delivery would take three or four days. If it was a holiday and the warehouses were overloaded, it could even take a week.

’It’s only just reached Xiaoshan...’

Jiang He looked at the calendar.

The National Day holiday was in two days, and the cold air from the north waited for no one.

’If Teacher Shen catches a cold, that would be a serious problem.’

He found the seller’s WangWang profile on the webpage: [Boss, can you rush the delivery? This item is urgent; I’m waiting to wear it.] 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

After a long while, the other party finally replied.

[Dear, we can’t control the logistics. The National Day holiday is coming up, so there’s a lot of freight on the road. Please be patient~]

Jiang He sighed and closed the chat window.

He opened another webpage and searched for the train schedule.

The page showed that for the National Day holiday period, pre-sale tickets from his city to the Capital City—whether for T-series, K-series, or even the green-skinned local express trains—were all listed as "sold out" or "limited."

Unlike later years, you couldn’t just buy train tickets online anytime in ’08. Most of the tickets were sold at station windows and ticket agencies, and by now, they had long been snatched up.

"Chen Hao," Jiang He asked, "do you know any reliable scalpers?"

"Scalpers?" Chen Hao was in the middle of replying to a message. He looked up at the question. "Oh, you’re going up north?"

"Yeah."

"At this time of year... it’ll probably be hard to get tickets."

Jiang He knew that, of course. "Is there a way?"

Chen Hao walked over. "Well, there are ways, but even the scalpers are low on tickets right now. Even if they have any, the price will be at least triple the original."

"Triple is fine," Jiang He said without hesitation. "As long as there’s a seat."

Chen Hao was taken aback. "That determined? You have to go?"

"I have to go." Jiang He swiveled his chair to face Chen Hao. "Can you ask around for me?"

"Alright." Chen Hao pulled out his phone. "I’ll call my cousin who works at a travel agency. He’s got connections; he should be able to get one."

"A standing ticket is fine too," Jiang He said.

"I give up," Chen Hao said, shaking his head as he walked to the balcony to make the call.

Jiang He retracted his gaze and glanced at the time.

7:50.

It was time for class.

First period was Pathophysiology, and Old Xie was strict with attendance.

In the classroom.

Classmates were chattering as they gathered around Jiang He, congratulating and celebrating with him.

Zhou Yang was firing off one rebuttal after another, with Lin Yue beside him agreeing nonstop.

In any case, everyone seemed to have decided on a group dinner after the National Day holiday, saying that if Jiang He also did well in the semifinals, they could all celebrate with a big feast.

When Old Xie came in to start class, he also praised Jiang He first, saying:

"The other day when you brought up restrictive fluid resuscitation, I knew you were no simple kid. You’re truly a student of mine, Old Xie! Keep up the good work in the semifinals. Everyone, let’s give Jiang He a round of applause!"

After responding politely, Jiang He lowered his head and began to focus on his own work.

This included writing out the workflow and plan he had prepared for his roommates for the National Day holiday.

Two periods passed. Just as class was about to be dismissed, a commotion broke out at the classroom door.

A middle-aged man with slicked-back hair walked in.

He had an upright posture, and though his face showed a hint of fatigue, his eyes were exceptionally sharp.

Chen Hao stared, stunned. "Holy shit... Isn’t that Professor Yang? What’s he doing in our classroom?"

Yang Xu came in first and said something to Old Xie.

Then Old Xie smiled, nodded, and said, "Jiang He, Professor Yang is looking for you. Step outside for a moment."

All eyes in the room turned to Jiang He!

The number of shocks he had delivered to everyone today was simply off the charts.

Everyone was already starting to re-evaluate Jiang He’s standing in the class...

Jiang He stood up.

Looking at the mentor before him, who was more than a decade younger than in his memory, a complex wave of emotion washed over him.

In his past life, it was also Yang Xu who had guided him into the field.

He was a truly good mentor.

Never mind that he had lent him money to treat his wife’s illness; when his research project failed, it was Yang Xu who had slammed his fist on the table and fought to save it.

Compared to many mentors from his past life who only knew how to exploit their students—some even becoming notorious for sexual harassment scandals detailed in PowerPoint presentations—...

...Yang Xu was truly a breath of fresh air.

Without him, he definitely wouldn’t have been able to persevere and finish his PhD.

After walking out of the classroom with Yang Xu...

Jiang He bowed slightly and said, "Teacher."

Yang Xu asked, "Jiang He, that perfect-score paper from last night, did you write it yourself?"

Jiang He: "I did."

Yang Xu stared into his eyes and suddenly threw a question at him:

"For acute obstructive suppurative cholangitis, you wrote that the first choice is emergency surgery to relieve the obstruction. Let me ask you, then: if the patient’s blood pressure is only 60/40, the anesthesiologist doesn’t dare to administer medication, and the operating room won’t let you proceed, what do you do?"

Jiang He answered in a split second, "Then I’d wheel a portable B-scan to the bedside and perform an ultrasound-guided PTCD drainage under local anesthesia."

"And if the puncture fails?" Yang Xu pressed.

"Then I’d puncture again, until I succeed."

Yang Xu stared at him intently.

After a few seconds.

A slight smile appeared on his face. He said:

"Not bad. Young and promising."

With that, Yang Xu seemed to turn to leave.

Jiang He called out to him softly, "Teacher, I’ve read your paper on radical resection for hilar cholangiocarcinoma. I’ve done some research on my own and made some progress. I’d like to report my findings to you."

Yang Xu stopped in his tracks.

When he turned back, his eyes were filled with astonishment.