In the classroom.

"Time’s up. Turn in your papers."

Jiang He collected the exam papers one by one.

"I’m not taking these back to the dorm. I’ll grade them right here, on the spot, and announce the results immediately after."

It was the most time-saving and efficient method.

He, of course, didn’t mind, but the mood of the students sitting below instantly changed.

Pan Wen did his best to look calm.

Zhou Yang and Lin Yue were also a little nervous. The two started whispering to each other to ease the tension.

Zhou Yang rambled nonsensically, "That dessert yesterday was so sweet. It was nothing like a dessert... wait, aren’t desserts supposed to be sweet? Shouldn’t a dessert that isn’t sweet be called a bitter instead?"

Lin Yue nodded like a little chick pecking at grain. "Totally, totally, totally, totally, totally."

Yi Xiangwan started telling a dwarf joke. "You know, I’m destined to be the best neurosurgeon."

Someone asked, "Why?"

Yi Xiangwan replied, "Because when outsiders visit my hometown (the Dwarf Country), they’re always bumping their heads."

The person: "..."

Gu Yizhou was already so tired he couldn’t stay awake, collapsing into an exhausted sleep.

In the back row, Li Wei, on the other hand, seemed quite relaxed.

He had come with the attitude of just giving it a try anyway. He hadn’t even understood the questions for more than half the problems on the test.

Bored out of his mind, he quietly leaned over to Chen Hao and said, "Haozi, I’ve got some new stuff from Europe and America. Out-of-print, high-def. Want me to copy it for you when we get back to the dorm?"

Chen Hao: "?"

’Weren’t they not that close? Why would he share something like this with me?’

But as the saying goes, you don’t slap a smiling face, so Chen Hao nodded in agreement.

Then, he suddenly felt that Li Wei wasn’t as annoying as he used to be.

However...

Chen Hao was still a bit confused, so he asked in a low voice, "Didn’t you used to like Cheng Xiyao? How can you talk about this stuff right in front of her? Aren’t you afraid she’ll overhear?"

Li Wei followed Chen Hao’s gaze to the back of Cheng Xiyao, shook his head, and said in a very frank tone, "I don’t like her anymore."

After saying that, afraid Cheng Xiyao might misunderstand, he added, "Hey, Cheng Xiyao, it’s not you, it’s... you know, I’m more focused on working hard on my clinical and research studies to make progress now."

Cheng Xiyao: "?"

She turned her head slightly, giving Li Wei a look one might reserve for a lunatic.

’Who are you? And who cares if you like me or not?’

Cheng Xiyao couldn’t be bothered with him at all. She immediately turned her head back and continued staring at the lecture podium.

She had placed extreme importance on this assessment, staying up late for the past few days to memorize all the literature Jiang He had provided. She wanted to stay so badly...

On the podium, Jiang He graded the papers at an incredible speed.

In less than half an hour, all twenty-plus exam papers were graded.

"All graded."

The moment Jiang He said this, everyone instantly fell silent. They all looked up, their gazes fixed on the podium.

Jiang He didn’t waste any time and said directly:

"I won’t announce the specific scores. In short, the people who passed the assessment are: Cheng Xiyao, Chen Hao, Tang Pei, Gu Yizhou, Yi Xiangwan, and Lu Xiaolin."

After announcing those six names, Jiang He paused.

The students below watched him eagerly, especially Pan Wen, a fifth-year, and his roommate, Wang Bo. They were desperately waiting for him to announce the next name.

After a few seconds of silence,

Jiang He said, "That’s it. Only these six passed."

In the classroom, some sighed, others gave wry smiles.

Zhou Yang turned to Lin Yue, his neck stiff as he tried to say something, but Lin Yue just smiled gently and patted his head. Zhou Yang froze for a moment, and the tension in his neck quickly faded...

Wang Bo hadn’t quite processed it yet, but soon enough, he too accepted reality.

In fact, he had also realized recently that he couldn’t concentrate on his studies like he did in his first year. He would often get distracted by minor things.

’Is this... what getting old feels like?’

As for the six whose names were called, they were naturally overjoyed.

Chen Hao muttered "Nice!" under his breath.

’All my hard work these past few days wasn’t for nothing!!’

Lu Xiaolin just gave a slight nod.

Yi Xiangwan let out a long breath.

Gu Yizhou, on the other hand, was woken up by someone. After hearing the news, he went right back to sleep.

The one with the biggest reaction was Cheng Xiyao. She immediately covered her face, on the verge of tears.

Jiang He went to the doorway and spoke with each of the students who had failed the assessment.

Failing was one thing, but the fact that they were willing to take the assessment in the first place was a sign of respect toward him.

He had to thank them.

Only when the six who passed were left in the classroom did Jiang He close the door. Then, his expression turned serious as he said:

"First of all, thank you all for being willing to take the assessment and join my project team."

"Let me briefly introduce our project, and I’ll get the ugly part out of the way first."

"The peripheral blood miRNA early screening project we’re about to undertake will likely be far more difficult than you can imagine right now."

"For the next three months, or even six, we might be in a state of getting zero results."

"Every day, you’ll be repeating the same extraction procedures, running the same gels, only to be faced with meaningless, discarded data."

"Boredom, frustration, self-doubt—these will be the norm."

"Edison tried thousands of times to find the right filament for the lightbulb."

"And the target we’re looking for might take tens of thousands of tries."

"If any of you feel you can’t handle this, you can back out at any time. I won’t force you."

After he finished speaking, none of the six people before him moved.

"Very good."

Jiang He’s gaze swept over the six people in front of him one by one.

He extended his right hand, palm down, and said, "Come on."

Chen Hao was the first to respond, followed closely by Lu Xiaolin.

Yi Xiangwan went up on his tiptoes and stacked his hand on top.

It wasn’t that much of a stretch, but he was just habitually making fun of himself.

Gu Yizhou, his eyes red, still looked like he wasn’t fully awake.

Cheng Xiyao bit her lower lip and placed her hand on top with determination.

The last one was Tang Pei.

The seven of them stacked their hands together.

Jiang He said softly:

"I don’t care what your original reasons for joining were."

"Whether it was to publish in a top journal for fame and fortune, to escape prejudice and prove yourself, to cure the sick and save lives, or for some even nobler medical ideal..."

"From this day forward, I hope that our team can work together as one."

"Let’s accomplish this, together. Let’s change the world, together."

After he spoke, Jiang He paused for a moment.

The wind blew past.

The young men and women all had eyes that burned like torches.

Jiang He smiled, pressed his palm down slightly, and then said:

"We’ll shout ’Let’s go!’ on three. One, two, three—"

Everyone shouted in unison, "Let’s go!!!"

A passionate pep talk was definitely necessary.

After that round of cheering, everyone’s expressions changed. It was as if a lion was hidden in Chen Hao’s eyes...

After Jiang He briefly explained the upcoming arrangements and plans to everyone, his phone rang.

The caller ID showed: Yang Xu.

He stepped outside the door and answered the call. "Professor."

Yang Xu dispensed with the pleasantries. "Jiang He, that pancreaticoduodenectomy you mentioned to me before? The hospital happens to have one scheduled for tonight. Are you free? Want to observe?"

"I’m free. I’ll be right there," Jiang He answered without hesitation.

Then he hung up the phone.

Since his rebirth, his goal had never changed—to conquer pancreatic cancer and save Shen Yu.

To achieve this grand ambition, he had to make two moves.

The first step was ultra-early screening.

Today, the initial team was established. Everything was proceeding according to plan.

The second step was treatment.

Once a problem was identified through screening, he had to have the most advanced modified radical pancreaticoduodenectomy as a failsafe.

If he wanted to present groundbreaking practical results at next year’s national pancreatic summit, he had to be at the hospital constantly, observing surgeries.

He needed to raise his status within the hospital and increase his influence.

And ultimately, completely refine the radical procedure.

Jiang He returned to the classroom and told everyone, "I have to go. You all should head back and prepare as I said."

Chen Hao let out a sound of acknowledgment and asked, "Old Jiang, where are you going?"

Jiang He replied, "To Affiliated Hospital No. 1, to observe a surgery."

Chen Hao said, "Oh." He had already been shocked once, so he was getting a little used to it now.

But Yi Xiangwan, Cheng Xiyao, Lu Xiaolin, and Tang Pei, who were standing nearby, were all completely baffled.

’Huh? A third-year observing a surgery? Are you kidding me, boss?’