I Am Diagnosed as a Medical Titan

In Yang Xu’s office.

His mentor looked up from a pile of medical records, glanced at him, and asked, "Your girlfriend left?"

"Yeah, on a morning flight."

"Good. Mid-month, there’s a provincial commendation ceremony. Are you going?"

Jiang He was at a loss for words.

The mere mention of the commendation ceremony made Jiang He feel a little awkward.

He asked in return, "Mentor, are you going?"

Yang Xu said, "Of course I’m going. Not just me, either. Professor Wang Xiaoqing, Professor Sun Changming, and a few of the associate deans will all be there. It’s a chance for the entire provincial medical system to shine. Who would miss it?"

Jiang He thought for a moment before replying, "I’ll see if I have time. If I do, I’ll go."

"Try your best to make time. Meeting people at a high-level conference like this will be good for you. Besides... that old codger Sun Changming will be there, and I’m worried he’ll find some excuse to corner your mentor’s wife and not let go, endlessly discussing some academic topic. If you come, the three of us can chat on our own and leave Sun Changming high and dry. Get it?"

Jiang He gave a wry smile. "Okay, I’ll do my best to be there."

"That’s more like it."

Yang Xu’s expression then turned serious, his tone tinged with regret. "It’s a shame. The higher-ups have issued strict orders not to talk about the gene sequencing work you did. Otherwise, the Outstanding Contribution Award at this conference would have definitely gone to you. Jiang He, sometimes I really don’t get it. How can you be so brilliant? Tell me the truth, you’re not an alien, are you?"

As he spoke, Yang Xu actually walked around from behind his desk and pinched Jiang He’s cheek.

Jiang He let him do it, his face expressionless.

"Hmm... feels normal. A bit dry, but definitely human."

Yang Xu let go, still muttering to himself:

’It’s not that he learned it... it’s that he never completely forgot...’

Jiang He complained silently in his head:

’In my past life, Boss Yang always acted like a stern mentor. Why does it feel like he’s totally let loose now that I’m reborn? It’s actually kind of cute.’

"Alright, enough joking around," Yang Xu said. "I have a surgery later. For the next few days, just go back to school and get some rest."

Jiang He nodded.

He hadn’t planned on coming to the hospital for the next while anyway—not to rest, but because he had to push forward with the research projects he was working on.

Jiang He remembered something else. "Mentor, I went to the High-Tech Zone this morning to look at the site for the P3 lab. The area they’ve marked off seems pretty big?"

Yang Xu replied, "It is. After the higher-ups went for a site inspection, they found the conditions there to be excellent. The province went ahead and approved taking over the entire surrounding park."

"They’re taking over the whole thing?"

"That’s right. The state is funding it. They plan to build a key national research base there, with several high-standard laboratories. Your P3 lab is just one of the core areas, so you don’t need to feel too much pressure. You’re not expected to carry the entire park’s output on your shoulders."

Jiang He asked, "At this scale, how long will it take to build and become operational?"

Yang Xu paused what he was doing and thought for a moment. "It won’t be that fast. Procuring, approving, and clearing customs for all the high-tech equipment, plus constructing and testing the sterile environment and negative pressure systems... it will take at least six months to a year. And that’s the fastest possible timeline, with special approvals and green lights all the way."

Jiang He nodded.

That was just the reality of the times.

In this era, the timelines for everything from publishing in top international journals to navigating clinical approvals were agonizingly long.

Especially with the early electronic review systems. The international servers crashed at the drop of a hat, and uploading an attachment could get stuck at 99% for an entire day.

Jiang He could only schedule his own work more tightly, running multiple projects in parallel to ensure his progress never stalled.

"Mentor, I’ll do some preliminary research at the university for now. Also, I need a batch of cryopreserved serum samples from our hospital’s ’SIRS (Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome) Task Force,’ the ones collected between ’03 and ’08. I want to use them to validate a prognostic model for severe acute pancreatitis (SAP)."

Yang Xu was taken aback for a second. "That batch of samples? Those were stored away as part of a special provincial fund for key discipline development. If you want to use them, you’ll have to go through some formalities."

"That’s why I was hoping you could help me. I need you to apply to the hospital’s ethics committee for an expedited approval with a research waiver. This paper is aiming for a top international journal."

Yang Xu gave him a deep look, once again marveling inwardly.

’The level of rigor this student of mine has is like that of a veteran department head. It’s just unbelievable.’

He nodded. "Alright, I’ll handle it. I can get you the approval slip this afternoon."

"Thank you, Mentor."

Jiang He stood up to leave.

Just as he reached the door, Yang Xu suddenly called out to him. "Jiang He, did you feel like a lot of people were looking at you differently when you came to the hospital today?"

Jiang He recalled the nurses and young doctors he’d passed in the hallway. "I think I did get that feeling."

Yang Xu smiled. "It’s because I brought up the posterior approach protocol you proposed during a department meeting a few days ago."

"Your idea was just too practical. The protocol has already been rolled out across all the surgical departments in the hospital. And I’ve already organized a team to start compiling cases and writing a paper."

"Of course, you’re a co-first author on this paper. You little rascal... I heard you’re also working on a step-up therapy project with Professor Wang Xiaoqing, right?"

"Yeah, it’s progressing quite well."

"So if you count them up, you’ve got quite a few co-first author papers in the works, huh?" Yang Xu teased.

Jiang He quickly ran through the list in his head.

It was indeed a lot.

There was the project with his senior, Lu Xiaolin, where he was a co-first author. Then there was the paper on "A New Posterior Approach for Post-Pancreatoduodenectomy Surgery" that his mentor Yang Xu was leading, where he was also a co-first author. And the ongoing "Step-Up Treatment Strategy for Severe Acute Pancreatitis" with Professor Wang Xiaoqing, another co-first author credit. If he also counted the theory on "Gut Microbiome Intervention for Hepatic Encephalopathy" from Zhiyu’s chat group...