Chapter 255

Roughly a month ago, right after the National Natural Science Foundation general project results were announced, this Teacher Ma called my Master to the neighboring province and had a serious talk.

Yuan Weihong did not disclose what exactly the two discussed.

But it was quite obvious that my Master was no easy mark either.

If Teacher Ma could burn bridges after crossing the river, once Yuan Weihong got the bridge to cross the river, he would also swagger across it.

Neither Fang Ziye nor Lan Tianluo had ever met Teacher Ma, but after all, one must be grateful to be living in the information age.

In the information age, anyone with even a bit of fame and weight can have traces found about them online and be 'worshipped'.

And Zhongda Affiliated Hospital's Associate Professor Martin Yong was precisely someone Fang Ziye and Lan Tianluo had 'worshipped' more than a few times.

Fang Ziye never expected this Teacher Uncle would actually appear in this residential community.

But precisely because of that, Fang Ziye was instead unafraid; this was Enshi, Enshi was Fang Ziye's hometown, and if Martin Yong wanted to pull any crooked schemes in Enshi, he absolutely would not walk out of Enshi first.

"May I ask, who are you?" Fang Ziye naturally could only pretend not to recognize the other party.

Junior Brother Lan Tianluo was already cowering behind him, but Fang Ziye knew he himself could not cower.

Martin Yong's height was decent, his figure looked upright, like an old cadre from a bygone era, wearing gold-rimmed glasses, his whole person exuding a thick scholarly air.

Judging by his looks alone, you would never think he was someone who stole others' achievements; he should be an upright, capable, talented young hero.

Teacher Ma looked even younger than my own Master, without too many traces of time's erosion.

Martin Yong wore a shirt and trousers, his right hand holding a briefcase: "Hello, Doctor Fang, I learned you live in this community from Doctor Guo Yunlei at Enshi Central Hospital."

"I told him my surname is Ma, that I'm your Teacher Ma, and he believed it. You can also call me Teacher Ma, or you can call me Teacher Uncle Ma."

Martin Yong stepped forward, his tone and manner quite elegant and calm, extending his right hand, wanting to shake hands with Fang Ziye.

Fang Ziye extended his hand, symbolically bumping against Martin Yong's.

"Teacher Ma, what are you doing in Enshi? Does my Master know you're here? You should be here to find my Master, right?" Fang Ziye didn't even dare directly invite Martin Yong into the room to talk.

Fang Ziye also felt he couldn't pull off such calm nonchalance.

But Martin Yong said: "Old Professor Chu's inherited way of receiving guests shouldn't be in the corridor, right?"

"Ziye, you and I aren't really outsiders. If you feel awkward us chatting in your room, we can go out together and find a teahouse." Martin Yong suggested.

Hearing this, Fang Ziye quickly nodded in agreement: "We can find a teahouse, but only I will accompany you, my Junior Brother goes home; otherwise, we have nothing to talk about!"

"This?" Martin Yong's expression visibly changed slightly.

"Teacher Uncle Ma, if you find it inconvenient, then please feel free to leave. Please remember this is Enshi, my hometown." Fang Ziye said indifferently.

Fang Ziye wasn't boasting about how amazing he was, but one thing was certain: if he got beaten up in Enshi, calling a bunch of relatives, even a group brawl by violent relatives, was one hundred percent guaranteed.

"How about everyone together?" Martin Yong didn't know why Fang Ziye had such a powerful aura; for a moment, it seemed like Fang Ziye was about to seize home-field advantage.

"Teacher Ma, my Junior Brother and I aren't without money for tea? You'd better just go find my Master directly. Goodbye." Fang Ziye waved slightly, not giving Martin Yong any extra chance, found his own room doorway, opened it, and walked inside.

Martin Yong didn't make a move, but spoke: "Little Fang, let's go out for tea together, have a chat?"

"My coming here, your Master knows about it too, so I'm not afraid you'll have your Junior Brother tip off Yuan Weihong."

……

Twenty minutes later.

In a private room of a teahouse opposite the hospital, after the waiter brought a pot of Longjing Tea Tea and ordinary green tea into the private room and withdrew, Fang Ziye took the initiative to say: "Teacher Ma, actually your coming to find me, isn't it a bit superfluous?"

"During our graduate stage, most of our research project funding comes from the Supervisor, and even our research directions all originate from the Supervisor."

"So I actually don't understand what you mean by coming to find me, Teacher Ma."

Fang Ziye was telling the truth.

The reason graduate students call their Supervisor 'boss' is: the boss gives you money, gives you the research direction, lets you publish papers, equivalent to you being a tool person who repeats the research direction and outputs papers; ownership belongs to the Supervisor.

If you also want to own the ownership yourself, you go get your own projects, mentor students...

"Doctor Fang, if I tell you I came for you as a person, would you find it very unexpected?" Martin Yong didn't play by conventional logic, didn't get to the point.

"Zhongda Affiliated Hospital is a hospital with very strong strength, patient volume, platform data volume, and..." Martin Yong actually started elaborating some objective data to Fang Ziye.

"Teacher Ma, have you gotten something wrong?"

"I might not even stay at Zhongnan! Why would I go to Zhongda?"

"Is Huazhong Affiliated's Union and Tongji not fragrant enough, or are the treatments at those hospitals in Magic Capital and Jingdu not good enough? Development prospects not strong enough?" Fang Ziye also didn't play by conventional logic.

Hearing this, Martin Yong paused, as if looking at Fang Ziye full of rebellious bones, suddenly not knowing what to say.

Fang Ziye added: "To me, Zhongnan at least has a nostalgia label; besides that, does Zhongnan Hospital this platform, and Zhongda Affiliated Hospital this platform, have any particularly outstanding places compared to other hospitals?"

Hearing this, Martin Yong smiled faintly: "Doctor Fang, don't speak so absolutely. Our Zhongda Affiliated Hospital still has places worth praising."

"If Doctor Fang is willing to come, we will definitely make you satisfied."

"Perhaps if Teacher Ma you come to invite, we might not be able to talk to satisfaction." Fang Ziye didn't pretend anymore; he just wanted to see what exactly this Martin Yong came to do.

Fang Ziye was young after all, so his inability to keep pretending was within Martin Yong's calculations.

Martin Yong smiled, raised his steaming teacup, invited Fang Ziye to take a sip, then said: "Doctor Fang, do you have a deep misunderstanding of me? Do you feel I previously stole something from your Master?"

"Actually, this matter, the benevolent see benevolence, the wise see wisdom."

"The things belong to the Master, not your Master. You just said it yourself: ownership of graduate stage output belongs to the Supervisor. I merely took the Master's things and used them to carry on the Master's legacy, inherit Old Professor Chu's philosophy..."

"Was the experiment done by you, Teacher Ma?" Fang Ziye wouldn't give Martin Yong a chance to argue.

"The experiment was the Master's. The experimental results were also the Master's, just the Master didn't get around to allocating the results output." Martin Yong still wasn't angry.

"But Old Professor Chu had other research directions too, and had directions allocated to you, Teacher Ma. We're all researchers, don't treat people like fools."

"I don't like showing off my own nobility, so I also don't like others acting all high and mighty in front of me, because when I don't accommodate people, I won't cooperate." Fang Ziye spoke very bluntly, even a bit killing the heart.

Martin Yong's face twitched, but quickly calmed.

"Doctor Fang, you're still young now, you fundamentally don't understand. In that situation back then, if the things were left to Yuan Weihong, he would ultimately be gnawed until not even dregs remained."

"He couldn't get that many things."

"But these achievements are enough for me, and for your Master's other Senior Brother!" Martin Yong still wanted to say something.

Fang Ziye said, "Since our ideologies differ, there's no need to continue talking. I only believe that heaven rewards diligence; what I produce myself, I can take with me."

"But taking someone else's things — taking without telling is stealing, telling and still taking is snatching!"

When Fang Ziye finished speaking, Martin Yong finally couldn't hold back; he slammed the tabletop, stood up: "What do you know?!"

"Do you know what kind of experience it was that time, when the teacher had just passed away not long before, and your other Teacher, Senior Uncle Liu, who was originally a sure thing for promotion to Deputy Chief Physician, ended up having to give the opportunity to Peng Long?"

"Does he Yuan Weihong know what the two of us, me and Senior Brother Liu Qiao, went through at that time?"

"Do you know what 'eating the whole household' means?"

"Mm, the 'whole household' in the medical field means family cannot leave an academic legacy."

Martin Yong clenched his fist, his body trembled slightly; only after a while, after he took a few deep breaths, did he slowly open his eyes.

Looking at Fang Ziye, he said, "Ziye, you can hate me, it doesn't matter, but you only need to know, me and your other Teacher, we have never actively framed your teacher."

"Just took his things, but?"

"The people around you now, who look extremely kind to you, extremely friendly to you, they may not be as beautiful as you imagine!"

"Those they targeted before, the direct objects of their tactics, were us when we were still in Zhongnan Hospital; at that time, our relationship with your teacher Yuan Weihong was very close."

"I won't bring up cooperation matters with you for now."

"You go ask Yuan Weihong yourself; you and Yuan Weihong, the two of you, think it over carefully, only then might you be able to walk out of your knot."

"But, as an experienced person, I must tell you one thing: if you have an External Hospital Support Team for cooperation, it will be more advantageous for your development within Ben Yuan!"

"Because only then will others feel you're not so easy to bully, and won't eat the absolute household!"

"Tree falls monkeys scatter, man falls blood dries."

"Yuan Weihong was still young at that time; he was just a student, what did he know?" Martin Yong shook his head.

Fang Ziye looked at Martin Yong at this moment, questioning: "But you not only failed to protect him, you even crossed the river and dismantled the bridge. He was also just a student at that time; what a student needs to consider is the job problem, the future problem!"

Because of these two words "student," Fang Ziye felt even more empathy.

(Chapter End)