Jiang He didn’t mind.

He casually pulled a sheet from a stack of spare exam papers and handed it over.

"Thanks," Xu Chen said, taking the paper. He nodded and walked out of the classroom.

Jiang He’s gaze returned to the room.

He knew exactly why Xu Chen had come asking for the exam paper.

In the world of scientific research, there was a certain logic:

If you wanted to know the level of a project team, you just had to look at the kinds of problems its core members were focused on.

The vision of the person writing the questions determined the ceiling of the test.

Only when you yourself have reached a certain level can you design a targeted assessment.

Xu Chen wanted to use this exam to gauge the depth of his miRNA early screening project.

Jiang He wasn’t worried about any secrets being leaked.

’Learn if you want. Be my guest.’

Then he observed the exam candidates.

Li Zijian wasn’t in good shape. He was already stuck on the multiple-choice questions. It seemed the incident with Han Tiantian was still affecting him.

Next to him, Cheng Xiyao’s pen was moving nonstop. She had probably memorized the literature he had assigned a few days ago and was now frantically writing it all down for the short answer questions.

Yi Xiangwan and Gu Yizhou were in another state entirely.

Yi Xiangwan’s brow was furrowed as she rapidly worked through something on her scratch paper. She had clearly hit a difficult point, but her eyes were filled with excitement.

Gu Yizhou, on the other hand, had bloodshot eyes, a clear sign he had spent another sleepless night outside the ICU. He wrote with immense pressure, as if it was a do-or-die effort.

Jiang He looked away.

’The questions I wrote are highly specific. They’re not something an average student can handle.’

’Good luck, everyone.’

...

「Outside the classroom, in the hallway.」

Xu Chen casually looked over the exam paper.

He figured Jiang He would probably just test some basic concepts of molecular biology, maybe touching on PCR operating procedures at most.

For a top student like him from the eight-year clinical program, it would be a piece of cake.

He had taken too many hits recently; he needed to find some confidence first.

So, he looked at the first fill-in-the-blank question.

[When performing extraction on peripheral blood serum, the small initial volume and high concentration of protein inhibitors can easily lead to the loss of target small RNA with conventional column-based methods. Before binding to the column matrix, adjusting the pH of the lysis buffer to ____ and adding ____ as a co-precipitant can increase the recovery rate of miRNA-155 to over 95%.]

The smile on Xu Chen’s lips vanished instantly.

’What the hell kind of question is this?’

’Peripheral blood serum extraction? Aren’t current conventional extractions all for tissue samples?’

’The content of free nucleic acids in serum is pathetically low. What can you even do with it after extraction?’

Refusing to believe it, Xu Chen quickly skipped past the fill-in-the-blanks and looked directly at the short answer questions.

[Briefly describe, in the context of TaqMan probe methodology combined with RT-PCR technology...]

Xu Chen: "?"

’Huh? What is this?’

He seemed to recall foreign journals mentioning this cutting-edge sequence modification strategy, but he’d never bothered to read them in detail.

Xu Chen felt his throat go dry.

’This exam... something’s not right!’

"Xu Chen, what are you looking at? Get back in here."

The door to the adjacent conference room opened, and a second-year graduate student from his team poked his head out, waving him over.

Xu Chen snapped back to his senses and replied, "Coming."

He folded the exam paper, clutched it in his hand, and strode into the conference room.

Seven or eight people were already seated in the conference room, all members of his team.

At the head of the long table sat a man in his fifties, wearing a dark gray jacket.

Sun Changming.

Professor and doctoral advisor at the Cancer Research Institute of Affiliated Hospital No. 1.

He had a buzz cut and a kind face.

"Go on and sit, don’t be so formal."

Xu Chen pulled out a chair, sat down, and spread the exam paper he was holding onto the tabletop.

Sun Changming noticed he wasn’t acting like himself.

He teased, "Xu Chen, what are you spacing out for? Another breakup?"

A ripple of soft laughter went through the room.

Professor Sun didn’t usually put on airs; he was like a playful old man.

Xu Chen was a little embarrassed and explained, "No, Professor Sun. This is... from next door. It’s the recruitment exam for Jiang He’s project team today. I was just passing by and asked him for a copy."

"Oh?" Sun Changming’s interest was piqued. "Let me see."

Xu Chen handed the exam paper over with both hands.

Sun Changming fished a pair of reading glasses from his jacket pocket.

At first, his expression was relaxed.

Like an elder reading a junior’s casual writing.

Then...

One minute passed.

Sun Changming said nothing.

Two minutes passed.

Sun Changming still said nothing.

Xu Chen was getting anxious. ’Say something! Boss! Just say something!’

Unfortunately for him, Sun Changming’s brow had already furrowed. He slowly leaned forward, propping his elbows on the table.

His gaze... also grew focused and solemn.

In reality, the depth with which Sun Changming analyzed things was on a completely different level from Xu Chen.

Xu Chen saw a series of impossibly difficult questions about lab techniques.

Sun Changming, however, saw the core concept the exam’s creator had hidden behind those questions.

"miRNA-155, miRNA-196a, circulating serum testing, stem-loop reverse transcription..."

Sun Changming unconsciously muttered a few of the high-frequency terms that appeared on the paper.

’Interesting.’

Early screening currently has a major pain point. Simply put, by the time a problem is discovered, it’s often in the middle to late stages.

The academic world has long been searching for a biomarker that could sound the alarm at the earliest possible stage, even when cells have just turned malignant but haven’t yet formed a tumor.

With every question it posed, Jiang He’s exam paper seemed to flag a technical hurdle.

Sun Changming connected these flags, dot to dot.

A complete, clear, and incredibly ambitious path for early screening leaped off the page.

Jiang He was attempting to bypass traditional tissue biopsies and directly extract microRNA from a patient’s routine blood draw.

Then, by using specific PCR techniques to amplify the signal, he could determine the pancreas’s tendency toward cancer.

This path was almost entirely uncharted territory in the country.

Even top international labs were still struggling to find their way.

Sun Changming reached into his pocket and felt his cigarette case.

A craving hit.

He stood up.

A doctoral student beside him, ready to take notes, asked, "Professor, are you about to start?"

Sun Changming waved a hand. "Let’s not have the meeting today."

"Huh?" The others looked at each other in confusion.

"Refine the materials you have on hand. Dismissed for today."

After speaking, Sun Changming picked up the exam paper and walked out of the conference room.

He planned to read it while he smoked.

「On a bench by the roadside.」

Smoke curled up, blurring his features.

The more Sun Changming read, the more astounded he became.

’This Jiang He’s line of thinking... it’s really something else.’

He read it again.

’Well, what do you know? I’m getting even more out of it.’

He read it one more time!

Only when he had slowly finished a whole cigarette did he carefully fold the paper and place it in the inside pocket of his jacket.

After finishing the exam, Sun Changming felt no anger or jealousy.

Instead, he felt a strange excitement, as if he had just witnessed the birth of something new.

The path of scientific research was, by its very nature, one where each generation pushed the next one forward.

Especially since, if this thing actually worked, there was no telling how many lives it could save.

’My son’s spirit in heaven would be so gratified to see this exam paper.’

Sun Changming smiled faintly, then called out to a passing student, "Young man, did you know? That student, Jiang He... he’s no simple fellow."

The student was baffled. "Huh?... Oh, okay. I understand, professor. Thanks for the heads-up."