Chapter 119

Qian Qiaofeng is a Professional Doctorate second-year doctoral student under Associate Professor Hong Zili; Associate Professor Hong Zili's work focus was on research in his early years, but in recent years it has shifted to clinical work, so Qian Qiaofeng's contact time with Associate Professor Hong Zili is even more than that of the other Academic PhD Students.

And Associate Professor Hong Zili having Qian Qiaofeng stand by in place when job hunting also represents a kind of appreciation and recognition. And given Associate Professor Hong Zili's attainments in academic achievements, in this era that increasingly values academics, he is practically a rampage-tier existence at Zhongnan Hospital.

Therefore, if Associate Professor Hong Zili insists on wanting Qian Qiaofeng to stay at the hospital and follow him, no one would underestimate the influence of a research big shot who is merely an Associate Professor.

"Master, your evaluation of Fang Ziye is this high?"

"I've rarely seen you praise someone like this either." When Qian Qiaofeng carefully served tea to Associate Professor Hong Zili, he took out his own cigarette box and handed a cigarette to Associate Professor Hong Zili with both hands.

The Master-Disciple relationship between the two is good; the main reason is that Qian Qiaofeng's capability and qualification are very strong, and another layer of reason is the cigarette-friend relationship.

Hong Zili actively accepted Qian Qiaofeng's lighter to light his cigarette, saying: "You should smoke less; it's been so many years since your breakup, smoking isn't a good thing."

Qian Qiaofeng only accompanied with a smile at first; after lighting one for himself, he turned and locked the office door to avoid Teacher Deng barging in and finding trouble for Master and himself.

When Qian Qiaofeng turned back around, Hong Zili said: "Your Master rarely praises people, because few people are worthy of praise; it doesn't mean your Master doesn't know how. When your Master needed to bootlick people, you were still in elementary school."

"Fang Ziye's current experimental operation standard is above the standard line you imagine."

Hong Zili took out an ashtray from the cabinet at the bottom right corner of the desk and pushed it to the center.

Qian Qiaofeng sat half his buttocks on a round small steel stool, first nodding in acknowledgment, then joking: "Master, Ziye's operation level surely wouldn't be higher than Yan Yu's, right?"

Yan Yu, Associate Professor Hong Zili said, is the student with the best basic experimental operation level he has seen in Zhongnan Hospital in recent years, bar none.

It's just a pity she has already chosen Internal Medicine, studying under a Professor of Rheumatology and Immunology; otherwise, Hong Zili very much hoped this classmate Yan Yu could come to Hong Zili's laboratory after graduation, and he would even be willing to give up his current position as Deputy Lab Director.

"Why couldn't it be?" Hong Zili countered Qian Qiaofeng.

The joking expression on Qian Qiaofeng's face gradually stiffened—

It was very obvious that his own teacher's words completely exceeded his expectations; the reason he brought up this classmate of his was only to make himself more composed.

The higher a person's experience, the more they can remain unperturbed by honor or disgrace when encountering matters and meeting people.

"Master, didn't you say that my classmate's level is about the same as yours?" Qian Qiaofeng was slightly dazed, to the point that after only two puffs he directly stubbed out the cigarette butt and sat up straight.

His mood could no longer calm down; ripples slowly emerged.

Qian Qiaofeng has always known that Associate Professor Hong Zili following Teacher Deng in the same laboratory is a waste of talent. According to Associate Professor Hong Zili's current academic achievements, the hospital arranging a separate laboratory for Associate Professor Hong Zili is only natural.

Even if resources are insufficient, in the academic field, in the laboratory, if divided by capability, it should be Teacher Deng listening to Associate Professor Hong Zili; even on the surface it should be so.

After all, those students in Teacher Deng's Group are all self-taught in their own specialties; they sponge some experimental learning opportunities here, sponge some there, completely unsystematic.

But Hong Zili is different; Hong Zili brought a batch of students from the start, then let students teach students while regularly visiting the laboratory and regularly holding Group Meetings.

Group Meetings are Group Internal experimental progress and experimental direction discussion reporting meetings.

And such Group Meetings, Teacher Deng occasionally holds too, but what Teacher Deng does is just be a pure listener; most of the time, it's Yuan Weihong and Associate Professor Xie Jinyuan acting as substitutes.

But their attainments, compared to my own Master, not to say the gap is huge, but they would still have to struggle for at least four or five years to reach Master's current attainments, and even that isn't guaranteed.

"So that's why you couldn't discover it?" Hong Zili himself took a deep drag.

While exhaling, Hong Zili also said: "The proficiency and level of basic experimental operation not only affect the experiment's success rate, but more importantly affect the depth of basic experiments that can be performed. Currently, our laboratory conducts only routine and common cell experiments."

"But there are some, uncommon, non-routine steps that you can only see in literature; if you rashly try to replicate them, in the initial learning stage, it is absolutely impossible."

"And after proficiency improves, one can even originally create some experimental operations."

"Qiaofeng, we cannot cherish our own broom, nor fish for fame and reputation. When encountering good students or colleagues, we must be generous; what should be learned must be learned, what should be helped must be helped."

"So my suggestion is, you can bring a few Fellow Trainees, say Qin Hang and Zhao Yanlin, and infiltrate first; really, doing this won't reduce your benefits at all."

Associate Professor Hong Zili, from age 32 when he became a Master's Student Supervisor, no longer lightly took the field for pure laboratory operations, mostly just guiding students to grow.

This point, Hong Zili has often reflected on whether doing this is good or bad.

But in the end, Hong Zili still did not take that step out, resulting in his current basic experimental operation proficiency not only failing to advance, but actually regressing.

However, although he did not operate personally, with the gradual increase of accumulation and reading volume, and because Hong Zili's research foundation and accumulation are good, the burdens placed on him by the Department and Hospital grew heavier, so he could no longer attend to this matter.

Now, Hong Zili has after all single-handedly shouldered the task of Thoracic Surgery Research Director; all directions of Thoracic Surgery, he can slightly oversee.

Even in the entire Hospital's Research Forum, Associate Professor Hong Zili's current position has reached a very high level; above him are basically only a few nominal Professors, whose actual depth of understanding of basic research is still inferior to Hong Zili's.

Clinical, Outpatient Clinic, leading Clinical Group, promotion, obtaining Youth Thousand Talents Plan, preparing for Distinguished Youth, etc., have all consumed a fair amount of Hong Zili's energy and expenditure.

Naturally, there are also Research Project Applications, how to communicate with Eastern Han's academic circles and even the world's academic forums, making Hong Zili's available time even less.

"Master, since you've instructed, we will certainly execute. It's just that previously, we should still prioritize our own research tasks; everyone is an adult and should be responsible for what they do."

"How about this, next time I'll see if I can invite a few Doctoral Representatives from Teacher Deng's Group, plus Ziye and Tingzhu, to participate in our Group Internal Discussion Meeting..." Qian Qiaofeng knew his Senior Brother is currently considering whether to stay at Hong Zili's Postdoctoral Mobile Station or go to an outside Postdoctoral Mobile Station.

He can't get away, so he must shoulder many task arrangements within Master's Group, including but not limited to urging Fellow Trainees' experimental task progress, and teaching tasks.

All must be learned, because they'll all be useful when working in the future.

"Good! ~"

"But you're going abroad next month, so time will be very tight. But after you return from abroad, you'll know just how precious and inconceivable it is that Fang Ziye's current basic experimental operation level can reach this step."

"A distant relative is not as good as a near neighbor; Teacher Deng's personal charm is also not the fragmented picture you see on the surface." Hong Zili said this much, then fell into contemplation, waved his hand, and let Qian Qiaofeng go out to do his own things.

……

In the Operating Room.

The cells were still in the ice bath reaction period; Fang Ziye and Luo Tingzhu each removed their gloves, pressed the timer, and brought them out of the Operating Room.

Luo Tingzhu seemed somewhat reluctant to waste the gloves she had just bought not long ago, a matching pair; left hand twisting a pair of gloves, right hand quietly bidding them farewell, then throwing them into the Trash Can.

When leaving, Luo Tingzhu said: "Senior Brother, I don't know how long Professor Hong Zili watched you just now, but it can be seen that Professor Hong Zili appreciates you very much."

Fang Ziye thought for a moment before asking: "Tingzhu, can you roughly know what level Professor Hong Zili belongs to in our Hospital's research standard?"

Fang Ziye knew Luo Tingzhu understands this aspect even more than he does.

Fang Ziye came to Zhongnan Hospital midway, but Luo Tingzhu is a local, born and bred; from enrollment she went to Han City University, so the accumulation of information is different.

"If purely discussing basic experimental depth, Professor Hong is absolutely super-first-rate level; at thirty-one he became a Master's Student Supervisor, at thirty-four a Doctoral Supervisor and started taking Doctoral Students, at thirty-six he established a Postdoctoral Mobile Station, although currently the Station hasn't recruited suitable people."

"But I feel this cohort's Senior Brother Duan might choose to stay at the Station and continue working for two years before formally job hunting or staying at the Hospital."

Fang Ziye heard this and froze in a daze.

His own Master Yuan Weihong, in the Orthopedics research field, is already considered outstanding, but comparing Master's resume with Hong Zili's, it appears somewhat pale in comparison.

A thirty-four-year-old PhD supervisor who still takes on PhD students — his research accumulation has already reached a thickness where he can be utterly shameless about it.

My own Master is expected to formally start supervising his first PhD student around age thirty-seven.

And Hong Zili Associate Professor's CV, while incomparable to "super-mutant-level" figures like Liu Huanglong, ranks among the very top in Zhongnan Hospital and even the whole of Hubei Province.

"Pretty good, so Hong Lab doesn't lack research funding at all! They only worry about not being able to spend it all, and have to deliberately spend time balancing the cash flow of each project. Sigh!" Fang Ziye exclaimed with feeling.

He asked this not because he wanted to switch sects, but to benchmark in his imagination: if Yuan Weihong's small master's school, or Teacher Deng's big master's school, wanted to reach the funding abundance of Hong Zili Associate Professor's master's school, just how much accumulation would it take.

But obviously, Fang Ziye was still aiming a bit too high.

"No worries, Senior Brother, everyone has a chance."

"Hong Professor's foundation is solid to begin with, and the students he supervises are all very capable. Hong Professor's own Master's-to-PhD was completely seamless, Senior Brother Duan and Qian Qiaofeng Senior Brother were both brought up single-handedly by Professor Hong Zili!"

"I think we can do it too." Luo Tingzhu encouraged herself, walking side by side with Fang Ziye, they arrived at the Lab Office Hall outside the Operating Room.

But Luo Tingzhu didn't rush to sit at her own spot; instead, after passing her seat, she picked up her computer, along with the Bluetooth mouse and charger, and moved them all to beside Fang Ziye.

After setting them down and sitting with her feet together, Luo Tingzhu said: "Senior Brother, could you help me revise this paper? I originally planned to have Junior Brother Lan Tianluo review the first draft, since he has even more bioinformatics writing experience than I do."

"But I figured it's better to have fewer low-level errors."

Luo Tingzhu is someone who loves learning, knows how to learn, and knows how to seek advice; she will lay all the groundwork she possibly can in the early stages.

To reduce the other party's burden and opportunities for exploitation, yet even so, there are still those who want to take advantage, shameless and persistent.

"Sure, can do! You can leave it here or copy it to me via USB drive; I still need to organize my thoughts for a bit." Fang Ziye didn't immediately agree right away.

Because Fang Ziye currently has quite a few experimental lines and quite a few experimental groups, he must clearly list the progress of each group, the subsequent experimental routes, materials, reagents, etc., one by one — only then can he guarantee foolproof execution.

Frequent review, frequent mental advancement of one's experimental steps ahead of time — that is what a relatively mature researcher should do.

Luo Tingzhu naturally didn't press the matter; she brought her computer over, not because she didn't trust Fang Ziye or feared he'd steal her results, but because she wanted to do all the preparatory work thoroughly — she had even reviewed her own paper herself.

Inside she had marked which parts might be problematic and wanted Fang Ziye to focus on, which should be absolutely fine and could be skipped, and which were uncertain and needed careful reading.

Both careful reading and focus reading — in Luo Tingzhu's mind, there was ample preparation.

Fang Ziye opened his double-shoulder bag and pulled out four super-large notebooks, A4 paper pages, annotated with somewhat complex circuit diagrams, summaries, general outlines, detailed outlines, and minor outlines.

Luo Tingzhu originally just glanced casually, but after reading, she couldn't look away.

"Senior Brother, can I take a photo?" Luo Tingzhu stood at attention, feet together, eyes full of thirst for knowledge.

"No need, no need for this, I've already organized this into electronic files; I'll copy you a share in a bit — these I have to keep to hand over to Jie Han and Lan Tianluo, the two of them."

"Give it to you first; you print it out for them later, don't send it electronically."

"We don't understand either; sending directly like that isn't appropriate." Fang Ziye turned his head, smiled, and said.

I once, all alone, walked through thorns; I just hope my junior brothers won't have to retrace my old path.

With no Senior Brothers' "legacy" to inherit, I'll serve as a role model for the other junior brothers, passing on some of the wealth I've summarized to them.

This is the correct path for a master's school to develop upward.

Luo Tingzhu handed over her very cute USB drive, its packaging also pale green.

But Fang Ziye didn't mind those details; he just copied the stuff onto Luo Tingzhu's USB drive.

Only, just as Fang Ziye was about to eject the USB drive, Luo Tingzhu said a bit embarrassedly: "Senior Brother, copy that article's folder to your computer; it might be useful."

"I got a Senior Brother to use a Python web crawler to scrape all literature from the past ten years on osteosarcoma, Ewing sarcoma, and giant cell tumor of bone, including meta-analyses and reviews."

"Originally planned to share it with you after a while……"

"Ah? There's such a good thing?" Fang Ziye curiously opened it up.

He discovered Luo Tingzhu had organized these references extremely well.

First, under the reference papers folder there were three subfolders, corresponding to the three major tumor series.

Then under each tumor series, there were several more subfolders: reviews, meta-analyses, chemo regimens, basic research.

Under reviews, there were even finer classifications; even the paper titles had been personally annotated and modified by Luo Tingzhu.

Fang Ziye glanced sideways slightly: "How long did you prepare all this?"

"Not long, Senior Brother; I'll go check the experimental protocol first." Seeing Fang Ziye's copy job was done, Luo Tingzhu pointed at the USB icon, signaling him to hurry and pull it out.

She had to dodge for a bit.

Luo Tingzhu started preparing in December, organized straight through to around January 20th — which was when Fang Ziye defended — then after finishing, she went to ask Junior Brother Jie Han when Fang Ziye's birthday was.

Jie Han replied December 18th — that is, last year, last month the 18th; at the time Luo Tingzhu was slightly stunned; had she known earlier, she reckoned she would've swapped for a different gift, wouldn't have prepared such a special one.

"Oh, okay! ~"

"Here."

"Tingzhu, you also need to pay attention to rest, got it? Staying up too late hurts the body." Fang Ziye at this point added the line Yuan Weihong had entrusted him with earlier.

Fang Ziye also pointed at his own face: "Look, these are all from staying up late."

Luo Tingzhu nodded lightly, then hurriedly carried her computer back to her seat, gazing at Fang Ziye's mind maps and lists made with curtain/Word like treasures, feeling Fang Ziye was actually incredibly, incredibly, incredibly hardworking.

Only, just as Luo Tingzhu glanced sideways again toward Fang Ziye's direction, she discovered Fang Ziye had been taken away by Hong Zili Associate Professor's student, Qian Qiaofeng Senior Brother.

Luo Tingzhu was slightly disappointed, but immediately felt relieved.

She tiptoed to Fang Ziye's computer, deleted a sub-document inside one of the subfolders she had copied over, and chose to permanently delete it from the Recycle Bin as well, only then letting out a slight sigh of relief.

She glanced around a few times, found no one had noticed her little move, stood up, walked swaggeringly back to her seat, and single-mindedly waited for the timer to chime and to read Fang Ziye's organized experimental insights.

(Chapter End)