Chapter 316 - 213: The Accounting Stage
Wang Xiaoqing dragged Jiang He, jogging all the way into the laboratory.
The moment Boss Jiang stepped through the door,
Chen Hao, Yi Xiangwan, Gu Yizhou, Lu Xiaolin, Cai Zhuoqun... all their eyes locked onto him, shining brightly!
Jiang He: "?"
"What’s going on? Did the machine blow up?"
"Of course not!"
Wang Xiaoqing walked over to the PCR machine and patted it.
"Jiang He! Come look at the data!"
Jiang He was struck speechless by Professor Wang’s playful tone.
’His mentor’s wife still had a bit of a youthful flirtatiousness to her, didn’t she?’
A glance back told him Teacher Yang was totally eating it up. Not bad.
Wang Xiaoqing: "Jiang He! Under your guidance, we’ve already gotten the extraction and reverse transcription systems working over the last two days. But while we were all discussing it, we figured—since we’re doing ultra-early screening for pancreatic cancer, the amount of specific miRNA in the patient’s blood will be incredibly low. If our detection system isn’t sensitive enough, then no matter how pure the initial extraction is, it’s all for nothing if the machine can’t read it, right?"
Jiang He nodded.
Wang Xiaoqing said: "So, we all discussed it and decided to run a stress test without telling you!"
Jiang He tilted his head.
Wang Xiaoqing continued:
"After extracting the RNA, we performed a serial dilution on the sample."
"One to ten."
"One to one hundred."
"One to one thousand."
"And finally, one to ten thousand!"
"A ten-thousand-fold dilution, right?"
As she said this, Wang Xiaoqing pointed coolly at Lin Yue.
Lin Yue nodded vigorously. "That’s right!"
Jiang He: "?"
’What is this new little performance?’
Wang Xiaoqing brought up the amplification curve interface. "See for yourself. Even at a ten-thousand-fold dilution, simulating an extremely trace amount at an ultra-low concentration, this qPCR system still produced a perfectly smooth amplification curve!"
"The melting curve is also a single peak! No non-specific amplification or primer-dimers, right?"
Wang Xiaoqing pointed at Lin Yue!
Lin Yue: "That’s right!"
Wang Xiaoqing: "Jiang He, our radar is insanely sensitive! The sensitivity is completely off the charts!"
She thrust out a finger!
Lin Yue: "That’s right!!!"
Everyone looked at Jiang He excitedly.
This was the first time since the project’s inception that the entire team had, without any orders from Jiang He, taken the initiative to think, design their own validation experiment, and achieve a breakthrough result.
Working on experiments with a monster like Jiang He, the one thing everyone usually felt they were missing was a sense of participation.
This time, they had finally proven they weren’t just his instruments—they were genuinely useful!
The corners of Jiang He’s mouth slowly turned up.
’Beautifully done.’
Anyone who’s run enough experiments knows that PCR amplification can sometimes feel like black magic.
Under the extreme condition of a ten-thousand-fold dilution, ordinary primers would have started binding indiscriminately long ago, creating a chaotic mess.
But to still be able to produce a smooth, single peak at such an extremely low concentration...
This meant that the fault tolerance and specificity of this detection system had been pushed to its absolute limit!
As soon as Teacher Gu sent over the serum, this system would be able to lock onto even the faintest trace of cancerous miRNA in the blood, amplify it, and capture it with precision!
In Jiang He’s mind, the progress bar jumped again.
[miRNA Pancreatic Cancer Early Screening Project Progress: 50%...]
’Halfway there.’
The preliminary experiments were all a resounding success.
The remaining fifty percent was just waiting for a real-world battle.
Jiang He said in a gentle voice, "I am very satisfied. This proves that recruiting all of you to the team was the best decision I’ve ever made."
Hearing his words, a few of the young men felt their eyes begin to well up.
Cheng Xiyao also squeezed Tang Pei’s hand, and the two girls looked at each other and smiled.
Yi Xiangwan sniffled and muttered in a low voice, "Boss, I’m going to cry..."
Gu Yizhou: "Don’t be gross!"
He said that, but in truth, Gu Yizhou’s own heart was swelling with emotion...
Jiang He said, "Alright, shut down the machines, seal the samples. Everyone, wash your hands and change your clothes."
Chen Hao asked, "Old Jiang, are we done for the day?"
"My treat tonight, as a reward for everyone."
For the first time,
no one was interested in being treated to a meal.
They all said:
"I’m not hungry."
"Let’s keep the experiment going, Boss."
"I feel like I could run data all night."
"For real."
Jiang He smiled and said, "Let’s take a break. We have to wait for the serum next. The workload won’t be that heavy, so there’s no need to rush. Rest up during this time, and save your strength for the hard work that’s coming later."
Hearing this, the team’s excitement finally simmered down a little.
Everyone started washing their hands and changing their clothes.
’Everyone’s so efficient,’ Jiang He marveled inwardly.
’I have to admit, I really should thank Teacher Miller on the other side of the Pacific for this.’
’If it weren’t for the plagiarism scandal out of Johns Hopkins University lighting a fire under everyone, the team never would have unleashed such terrifying fighting spirit.’
Jiang He didn’t even need to supervise them. The whole team was wound up like clockwork, working two shifts, their eyes bloodshot as they furiously toiled away in the lab.
’Anger really is mankind’s greatest catalyst for productivity.’
’Works for me.’
...
...
The classic old spot: the outdoor food stall downstairs from Feiyu Internet Cafe.
Grilled skewers, oysters, ice-cold beer.
Taking a bite of all this on a cool November night in Yangcheng was pure bliss.
For the first time in a long while, Chen Hao mentioned wanting to pop into the internet cafe after dinner to check on his game account.
Yi Xiangwan boasted he was a master at CS, claiming that since he was a dwarf, no one could aim for his headshot line. Everyone laughed at his absurd excuse.
Jiang He toasted everyone. After making a round, he stepped away.
He went out to make a phone call.
A call to Teacher Gu.
Gu Qingyan’s voice sounded a little tired. Building a good relationship with her daughter was harder than she had imagined.
Now, when she and Zhang Sui got home at night, they would debrief and analyze their day as if it were a research project: how to care for their daughter, how to treat her well, and so on and so forth...
Their methods were clumsy, but their hearts were in the right place.
If this kept up, Jiaqi would feel their love sooner or later...
"Jiang He, not resting yet?"
"Yeah, I took the team out for a late-night snack. Teacher Gu, how are the arrangements for the cold chain transport of the serum coming along?"
"Oh, I’ve already applied to use the ultra-early pancreatic cancer serum bank from Charite Medical School, Berlin. I’ve screened and selected a total of fifty serum samples that meet your requirements, taken from patients during their healthy period two to three years before their diagnosis."
"That’s great."
"But the bottleneck is transportation. The special permit for cross-border transport of biological samples involves biosafety inspections by customs in both countries. I’ve used my connections at the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine to fast-track it, but the approval process for this kind of ultra-low-temperature, dry-ice, cold-chain air freight is still incredibly cumbersome."
Jiang He frowned. "Roughly how long until it arrives?"
"I’m pushing them every day. At the absolute fastest, it will be the beginning of next month, early December, before it might be delivered to the lab."
’Early next month...’
That meant there was a little over a week from now until the end of the month.
During that week or so, there wasn’t much more progress to be made on the research front.
"As long as it arrives by early next month, that’s fine, Teacher Gu. It gives my team a chance to solidify our current parameters. Thank you for all your hard work on the European side."
"No need to be so formal with me. Keep up the good work, Jiang He."
"I will."
Hanging up, Jiang He looked up at the full moon.
The moon we see tonight is the same moon that once shone upon the ancients.
’Even though we’re miles apart, I wonder if you’re looking at the same moon?’
’Since the research work was entering a week-long lull,’
’what am I waiting for?’
’I should just go see Teacher Shen ahead of schedule!’
’I’ll go look at diamond rings at the mall tomorrow or the day after, book a flight, arrange a hotel, and then hand off my schedule at Affiliated Hospital No. 1 to Yang Xu...’
’Go to the Capital City and propose!’
Jiang He returned to the outdoor food stall.
Chen Hao: "Hey, hey, Old Jiang’s back! Penalty drink, penalty drink!"
Jiang He picked up his half-full glass of beer, downed it in one go, and then said:
"Everyone, the specific serum samples from ultra-early-stage patients are currently going through customs for cold chain approval. They’re expected to arrive at the beginning of next month."
"So, from tomorrow until the end of the month, we’re entering a rest period."
"Professor Wang, let’s keep the two-shift schedule. Just run a few more batches with the normal serum data we have on hand to solidify our baseline."
Wang Xiaoqing nodded. "No problem."
Jiang He: "I have some personal matters to attend to in the next couple of days, so I need to make a trip to the Capital City. I’ll be back in three or four days if I’m quick, about a week if I’m slow."
Hearing this, the team erupted in rowdy cheers.
Everyone knew Jiang He was going to see his girl.
But not a single person felt there was anything wrong with "the boss running off to see his girlfriend at a critical moment."
On the contrary, they all thought it was perfectly natural.
They even felt relieved.
You have to understand, when this project had just started, whether it was Dean Chen of Affiliated Hospital No. 1, Director Lin Zhenhua of the Provincial Health Department, Yang Xu who treated Jiang He like his own son, or even Academician Zheng Liyan far away in the Capital City...
From start to finish, not a single one of these bigwigs had been optimistic about the project.
The bigwigs approved funding, labs, and resources, purely out of willingness to foot the bill for a once-in-a-millennium genius like Jiang He and let him try and fail.
But now?
A smooth single peak at a ten-thousand-fold dilution.
The radar was built.
Outsiders could never imagine the sheer significance of this achievement.
It was like a character in *The Mortal Cultivation Chronicles* who, after leveling up non-stop, finally reached the ’Reckoning’ stage—and now, many people who had bullied him would have to face their own reckoning.
The moment the serum arrived next month and this early screening model was truly up and running...
many people would also have to answer to Jiang He.
Johns Hopkins University across the ocean would have to answer for it, and the attempted plagiarists Wang Qian and Miller would have to answer for it.
And the bigwigs back home would also need to re-evaluate Jiang He.
All of this was about to trigger a super-tsunami powerful enough to shake the entire world!
"Go on, Boss, don’t worry about a thing!"
"Right, you go to the Capital City and spend some quality time with our future sister-in-law. We guarantee we’ll have the data here looking perfect, ready for you to approve the moment you get back!"
"Exactly! Boss, you’ve been working too hard. You deserve a break."
Everyone chimed in, voicing their support.
Jiang He smiled and raised his glass. "Alright, then. I’m counting on all of you to hold down the fort for the next few days. Bottoms up!"
"Cheers!"
...
Late at night.
For the first time in a long while, Jiang He couldn’t sleep.
If someone were to ask: "Dr. Jiang, Dr. Jiang, how do you always manage to fall asleep the moment your head hits the pillow?"
My answer: "Try sleeping only four hours a night and working your ass off all day. I guarantee you’ll be out like a light."
The reason for his insomnia was that he was thinking about his girl.
On his phone screen was still that photo of the two of them, taken in the Capital City.
Teacher Shen’s eyes were rimmed with red as she poked his cheek.
’Ah, so cute, so cute.’
’I wonder what kind of expression Teacher Shen will have when I propose?’
’Will she be so happy she jumps into my arms?’
Just thinking about it, Jiang He felt like something in his chest was about to overflow.
He closed his eyes, pressed the phone to his chest, and shouted in his heart:
’Honey! Just you wait, I’m fucking coming for you!’
