After hanging up, Yang Xu and Jiang He got down to business.

They spent the entire morning outlining the proposal for the peripheral blood miRNA early screening project.

At noon, Yang Xu stretched his shoulders and said:

"In mid-October, the hospital will hold a preliminary project review meeting."

"Sun Changming’s team will be there too. I specifically suggested this arrangement to the hospital leadership. The main goal is to bring your two overlapping projects to the table for an initial feasibility discussion."

Jiang He thought for a moment, then said bluntly, "Professor, isn’t it a bit too early to schedule a preliminary review meeting now?"

Yang Xu chuckled. "Not at all, not at all."

He opened a drawer, pulled out a faxed document several pages long, and pushed it in front of Jiang He.

"Because your LNR paper is about to be officially published. I just received the sample copy today."

The moment he said that, Jiang He understood everything.

’This move... The professor wants to use me to flex big time at the review meeting.’

It was foreseeable.

At the review meeting, Sun Changming’s team would most likely use Jiang He’s status as a third-year undergraduate, his lack of experience with national-level projects, and his team’s severe lack of qualifications as their main points of attack.

But if Yang Xu were to pull out this top-tier journal paper at that critical moment, the situation would be instantly reversed.

Jiang He couldn’t help but marvel internally. ’Experience really does count. The old master really knows how to show off...’

...

He left Affiliated Hospital No. 1 and headed back to Southern Medical University.

He pushed open the door to his dorm room, only to see the balcony door half-open.

Li Zijian was sitting dejectedly on a low plastic stool on the balcony, three crushed cigarette butts scattered at his feet.

Chen Hao and Wang Bo were beside him, trying to comfort him.

Jiang He walked over and asked, "What’s wrong?"

"Old Jiang... I finally know why Han Tiantian hasn’t replied to a single one of my texts these past few days."

Li Zijian took a deep breath and said, "She went on a trip with a fourth-year senior from the student union. To Yangshuo."

Jiang He froze for a second, then he understood...

The timeline slowly pieced itself together through Li Zijian’s halting account.

Before the National Day holiday, Han Tiantian had suddenly thrown a huge tantrum over him bumping her shoulder, and then she unilaterally cut off all communication.

Li Zijian lost his appetite and even wrote several long letters of apology, but heard nothing back.

Then, this afternoon, he learned the truth from one of Han Tiantian’s roommates.

Han Tiantian wasn’t angry at all.

That sudden argument was just a convenient excuse for her to go on a trip with the senior during the National Day holiday.

Her plan was perfect: give him the silent treatment for seven days, take a trip to Yangshuo, and when she came back at the end of the holiday, Li Zijian’s guilt would be at its peak. Then, she could opportunistically forgive him and continue enjoying his doting affection.

"Old Jiang, you know what the saddest part is?"

"I couldn’t even bring myself to touch her shoulder, afraid I might offend her... And for what?"

At this, Li Zijian’s tears finally broke free and streamed down his face. "The girl whose shoulder I couldn’t even bear to touch... that senior has probably already..."

Jiang He looked at the devastated Li Zijian, somewhat at a loss for words.

In his previous life, he had never interacted with this Han Tiantian.

All his impressions of Han Tiantian came from Li Zijian’s usual descriptions in the dorm—

gentle, kind, understanding, and inviolable.

In Li Zijian’s words, she was the perfect, unattainable love.

But now it seemed that wasn’t the case at all.

’You always want what you can’t have.’

Perhaps it was precisely because Li Zijian had never "won" her that he had endlessly deified the girl in his mind, turning her into a lifelong regret he could never forget.

Some things are like that... better admired from a distance than touched.

Faced with this kind of adolescent emotional collapse, Jiang He really didn’t know how to offer any comfort.

He thought about his Teacher Shen.

If one day, Shen Yu also suddenly gave him the silent treatment, secretly disappeared behind his back, and became unreachable, there was only one possibility—

’That silly girl of mine must be preparing some huge surprise for me, like secretly taking a hard-seat train for dozens of hours to come to Southern China for my birthday.’

Jiang He had this kind of almost blind, unshakable faith in Shen Yu.

"Alright, stop crying. Seeing someone’s true colors during the holiday is a much better deal than wasting several years of your youth on them later. Drink some water, wash your face, and get back to what you need to do tomorrow. Don’t forget the exam in a few days. I’m not going to lower my standards just because you’re heartbroken."

The flat tone, devoid of excessive sympathy, actually helped Li Zijian’s emotions stabilize a bit.

He forcefully wiped his tears and nodded.

"I know, Old Jiang. I won’t drop the ball."

The faucet ran with a SPLASH.

Li Zijian forcefully splashed his face with cold water a few times.

Chen Hao casually kicked a small plastic trash can over, gesturing for him to clean up the cigarette butts on the floor.

The atmosphere in the dorm gradually eased.

Chen Hao then asked curiously, "Old Jiang, tell us about your stuff. Yesterday... did you really go to Affiliated Hospital No. 1 to scrub in on a surgery?"

"Yeah, there was an emergency case of severe pancreatitis. Professor Yang was the chief surgeon, and he had me come over to lend a hand as the third assistant."

"Third assistant..." Chen Hao looked at Jiang He as if he were an alien. "Dude, that’s Affiliated Hospital No. 1! Countless second and third-year grad student seniors would have to beg and plead just to get in line for a chance to hold a retractor or be a third assistant in general surgery. And you, a third-year undergrad, get a personal call from the department head in the middle of the night?"

Jiang He didn’t reply.

Chen Hao could only let out a long sigh of amazement. "My god, I can’t even imagine. Bro, you’ve already made it this big? I feel like it was just a month ago we were sitting side-by-side at an internet cafe off-campus, playing games, sharing porn, using QVOD..."

Jiang He broke out in a sweat and quickly cut him off. "Chen Hao, shut up."

"What?" Chen Hao scratched his head. "You’re in a relationship now, but you can’t be celibate, right? You and Teacher Shen are long-distance, so don’t you still have to watch videos to take care of business?"

Jiang He: "..."

He was rendered speechless.

Wang Bo, who was beside them, chuckled. "It seems like Old Jiang isn’t into that stuff anymore. At least, you don’t suddenly hear the sound of tissues being pulled out late at night."

Jiang He: "..."

’Suddenly feels like my dark past is being dug up and I’m being publicly executed. This sucks.’

After the joke, Wang Bo laughed self-deprecatingly.

"Back at the start of the semester, I thought you were just a slacker. Then you finished the Mind Sports Competition in forty minutes with a perfect score, shocking the whole university. To be honest, I wasn’t convinced. I secretly wanted to treat you as a rival, thinking I’d get my revenge during the final exams."

"But now... I’m completely convinced. We’re not even on the same level anymore."

He stood up, walked over to Jiang He, and said sincerely, "Old Jiang, Brother Jiang, when you make it big in the future, you’ve got to look out for your bros."

Li Zijian, though still miserable, didn’t forget to add, "Don’t forget us when you’re rich and famous."

Jiang He said, "I’ll give you guys priority, but no matter who it is, if you want to join the project team, you have to pass an assessment."

"No problem!" said Chen Hao. "I’ve been grinding through research papers these past few days. I feel super strong right now!"

"I’ll do my best. I’ll definitely prepare well," Wang Bo also said, nodding solemnly.

Li Zijian: "They say breaking up makes you stronger. What do you think?"

Jiang He smiled, turned back around, opened his laptop, and began typing rapidly on the keyboard.

Document title: "Peripheral Blood miRNA Early Screening Project Team Entry - Foundational Theory Assessment".

He began writing the questions one by one, relying on his memories from his past life and his grasp of the current level of medical technology.

The questions weren’t obscure; they mainly tested the depth of one’s understanding of clinical laboratory science and the fundamentals of gene amplification.

Yi Xiangwan, Gu Yizhou, Cheng Xiyao, and the roommates behind him—they would all have to prove their mettle on this test.

The dorm room fell silent.

About half an hour passed.

Chen Hao suddenly exclaimed, "Holy shit!"

Wang Bo frowned and turned to ask, "What’s wrong?"

"Our class monitor, Zhou Yang... his marriage proposal was successful?!"