Chapter 679: Academician Zhang's Panic (Requesting Subscription)

Liu Huanglong's method of cutting the steak carried the precision of microsuturing, the sound of the knife on the porcelain plate reminiscent of the hum of a bone saw. As the myoglobin of the low-temperature slow-cooked Wagyu seeped out, Fang Ziye's retina automatically converted it into the soft tissue bleeding during surgery.

"The head chef of this restaurant has had a heart transplant." Liu Huanglong poked the 63-degree onsen egg with the tip of his fork, the flowing yolk resembling the contents of a ruptured ovarian cyst, "He says cooking and surgery both require precise control."

The words were interrupted by suddenly rising dry ice smoke, the liquid nitrogen-frozen rose petals exploding before them, fine ice crystals falling onto the obsidian dining table, like uric acid crystals under a microscope.

When the somelier presented the Burgundy red wine, Fang Ziye noticed the grape harvest date on the wine label was precise to the minute—September 23, 1997, 14:28. When Liu Huanglong raised his wine glass, the reflection on the cup wall showed the radial patterns on his iris, like a corneal endothelial cell microscope image...

"Ziye, functional reconstruction surgery is a surgical technique we proposed, so we have an obligation to see this technique through to the end." Liu Huanglong steered the conversation back.

Fang Ziye also cut a piece of beef and put it in his mouth: "Teacher Liu, meaning, as long as we have done something, whether it is a good thing or a bad thing, we need to do it ourselves?"

"Why not?" Liu Huanglong narrowed the corners of his eyes.

"You do good deeds, but when it comes to doing bad things, you avoid stepping forward? Where in this world is there such a good thing?"

Liu Huanglong gently put down the fork in his hand: "I have also discussed it with Professor Zhong, we strive to, before the middle of next year, introduce an access standard for functional reconstruction surgery technique licensing."

"It is necessary to report upward and remove some lead surgeons whose skills do not meet the standard."

"It's just how to define this standard? That is a rather troublesome matter."

After functional reconstruction surgery was successfully developed, it is no longer a new technique, but it is also a Level 4 surgery, belonging to major surgery.

Especially now that in clinical practice some lead surgeons have been found to not perform well enough, requiring revision cases, the setting of the new standard must be even more cautious.

Fang Ziye is a core technical backbone of functional reconstruction surgery, so for this matter Fang Ziye must participate.

The greater the ability, the greater the responsibility!

Hearing this, Fang Ziye suddenly thought of a possibility: "Teacher Liu, will our Trauma Surgery's mangled extremity limb preservation surgery also have some teachers who performed it, but eventually ended up with amputation?"

"What do you think? The answer is obvious, right?" Liu Huanglong rolled his eyes at Fang Ziye.

Fang Ziye for a moment did not know how to answer, his expression somewhat dejected.

Liu Huanglong very carefully noticed Fang Ziye's expression changes, and comforted him: "Still that saying, do good deeds, do not ask about the future."

"You do technique research and development, its purpose is to help patients, let patients who should have been amputated avoid amputation, let patients who should have been paralyzed stand up."

"The people who can perform surgery, in the end, cannot all be you yourself."

"Hubei Province is very big, Eastern Han is bigger, the world is even broader, you cannot manage other people, you can only do well yourself."

"Do good deeds, do not ask about the future! ~"

"This is not the responsibility of your original technique, but every technique, in the process of maturing, in others learning and improving, must take a detour, this is also the trial-and-error cost that every era must pay."

"If they do not go learn, then they will never learn."

"If they go learn, then there will always be an error rate! ~"

Liu Huanglong feared Fang Ziye's Dao heart would collapse.

Fang Ziye raised his head, and replied in a low voice: "Teacher Liu, I actually have not thought so much, I am just thinking, is there no better solution."

"Clearly functional reconstruction surgery and mangled extremity limb preservation surgery both have mature animal models?"

"Not everyone is so lacking in utilitarianism, nor is everyone able to endure loneliness like you!" Liu Huanglong tapped the plate in front of himself with his fork.

Having preparation and everyone going to quietly prepare for surgery are two different matters.

Objective standards are easy to set, but whether others will actively fit themselves into your objective standards is their own autonomous choice.

If there are no constraints, then there will always be some people who will take risks, skipping the experimental stage and directly practicing on patients in clinical settings!

What can you do to them?

Under such circumstances, only an assessment mechanism can be conducted.

That is, the Health Commission functional department must play a role, and how the Health Commission plays a role is to strictly execute a certain assessment standard, further constraining and binding the access rights to surgical techniques.

Besides this, there is no other way!

Fang Ziye and Liu Huanglong both do not have law enforcement power!

"Teacher Liu, since you say so, then this bad person, even if I do not want to do it, I have to do it." Fang Ziye said.

The matter of a bullet hitting the center of the brow will, with the passage of years, constantly make one feel the power of the returning boomerang.

Fang Ziye once also felt that the strict management system of medicine was very 'annoying', because Fang Ziye always needed to think of more ways to skip the surgery authorization stage.

But now, after Fang Ziye jumped out and turned back to look, he discovered that these so-called rules are a basic line of protection for ordinary people and ordinary patients.

Ordinary people and patients do not understand whose medical ability is good, whose medical ability is not good enough.

If surgery licensing is not controlled, a young doctor who just graduated would just go on to perform surgery, then for ordinary patients, that would be a nightmare.

"How is the taste?" After the meal, Liu Huanglong wiped his mouth while asking Fang Ziye for his feedback.

"Thank you Teacher Liu for the hospitality." Fang Ziye gave full emotional value.

Fang Ziye himself felt the taste was average, expensive was truly expensive, even without looking at the bill, when the dishes were served the waiter introduced the prices, the prices were truly calculated by the gram.

Finally Liu Huanglong paid the bill, Liu Huanglong also did not ask Fang Ziye whether it tasted good or such things, after eating like a home-cooked meal they went straight to the high-speed rail station.

Liu Huanglong gently placed the thermos cup on the foldable small table board, the cup bottom colliding with the wooden countertop making a dull sound. The light and shadows flying past outside the window cast mottled gold fragments on his lenses, making that pair of long narrow eyes appear even deeper. He adjusted the angle of the seat back, the leather fabric emitting a slight friction sound.

"Ziye, after we put our luggage in the hotel later, you come with me." He suddenly spoke, his fingers unconsciously rubbing the second button of his suit.

Fang Ziye felt cold sweat seeping from the back of his neck, the air pressure change when the high-speed rail passed through a tunnel made his eardrums slightly bulge. He looked at the speed numbers jumping on the LCD screen behind the front row seat—312km/h, this speed made the poplar trees outside the window connect into a blurred green wall.

"I made an appointment with several friends, counting them they are all your seniors in the industry. Just right for you all to get to know each other."

"It seems after you got to this position, you have almost not been in contact with people, right."

Fang Ziye knew Liu Huanglong was promoting him, it was just that Fang Ziye had not yet decided how to answer, so his expression was somewhat hesitant.

"It's okay, you don't need to be nervous, among the people I invited there is also an Associate Professor, the difference between you and them is just that you are a little younger..." Liu Huanglong explained in a gentle tone.

To be honest, Liu Huanglong although not good-looking, is really gentle enough.

And his own temperament is also passable.

"Teacher Liu, I already have an appointment tonight." Fang Ziye still decided to make things clear first.

Liu Huanglong's sleeve cuff brushed past the edge of the small table board, revealing a corner of the Patek Philippe Starry Sky Dial Watch. As the second hand swept over the Scorpio Nebula, the light spot refracted by the watch glass just happened to reflect on the back of Fang Ziye's hand, like a cluster of jumping phosphorescent fire. "Is it Professor Jiu who agreed to meet you, or Professor Gu? Or Professor Tang."

Liu Huanglong raised his eyebrow asking, his tone slightly sour.

Professor Qiu Zhenghua and Professor Gu Yuandong are both old acquaintances of Fang Ziye.

Liu Huanglong also arranged to meet these two orthopedics seniors early on, but he was never able to gain entry.

Although his own Old Mount Tai is also one of the Two Academies people, the number of Academicians in the Two Academies is not small either; each person is in their own specialty, and crossing specialties they might even be more familiar, but if it crosses a relatively large discipline?

Even with Old Mount Tai's introduction, Old Academician Gu Yuandong and the others only met Liu Huanglong once or twice symbolically...

Perhaps Liu Huanglong thinks himself not bad, but Old Professor Gu Yuandong has seen too many geniuses; even the founder of Hand Surgery, Academician Chen, was once Old Professor Gu Yuandong's 'Colleague'.

He himself is originally a genius, so he might not need to see other 'geniuses' anymore.

"Neither." Fang Ziye shook his head.

"Then why are you still going?" Liu Huanglong instinctively interjected.

"The ones I've arranged to meet this time are all the pillar professors of orthopedics in Jingdu."

The people Liu Huanglong is visiting this time are all orthopedics seniors; in a few more years, these people will definitely be the home-field masters of Eastern Han orthopedics.

"Not our internal orthopedics teachers, but Professor Zhang Limin who does basic research." Fang Ziye said.

"Professor Zhang Limin? Who's that?" To be fair, although Liu Huanglong is a Top Professor, because of Old Mount Tai he knows more about the Academician level.

But Liu Huanglong doesn't cling to the annual Academician election list and memorize every person's name and resume by heart either.

"A professor doing basic tumor research, the teacher who succeeded in the additional election together with our department's Professor Tang Fupei last year; I arranged it in advance."

Fang Ziye hurriedly gave some emotional value: "Teacher Liu, if there's such a good thing next time, you should give me a heads-up in advance."

Succeeding in the additional election together with Tang Fupei, that one is definitely an Academician too.

Hearing this, Liu Huanglong paused for a moment, then said faintly: "Our orthopedics teachers supporting you, I can understand that as them cherishing the younger generation."

"How come you're able to mix with a teacher doing basic tumor research?"

Liu Huanglong didn't wait for an answer; while organizing the small tray table, putting down the thermos cup, he then adjusted his seat: "Of course, Ziye you're also a ruthless person."

"Heard you almost dislocated an Academician teacher's leg before."

The two bought first-class seats, sitting side by side with no one disturbing them.

The reason they didn't buy premium seats was that Liu Huanglong didn't want a distance between them when chatting with Fang Ziye.

Fang Ziye writing letters isn't a secret; it's already been live-streamed, so it must have circulated internally.

But because it was a live stream, no one thought Fang Ziye was targeting the other party; they just thought Fang Ziye had guts, and by a fluke became someone else's 'gun'!

Academician elections, the competition is very large.

And now Academicians have a retirement system; they can go up, which means there's a chance to pull them down.

What if that netizen is someone at odds with Academician Zhang Limin, and while watching the live stream, lured Fang Ziye into writing a letter for Professor Zhang's team's article?

"It's this Teacher Zhang." Fang Ziye replied calmly.

"Uh~" Liu Huanglong choked.

"Your f*cking guts are really big!"

"Teacher Liu, so I don't dare open similar live streams recently; netizens are all watch-the-excitement types who don't mind big trouble."

"If I start streaming again now, I don't know how enthusiastic the netizens' replies will be next time, or how thorny."

To be fair, Fang Ziye's reputation in small circles counts as having been made.

Especially those doing tumor research; if Fang Ziye streams, some academic-type Master's Students or Doctors watching the excitement and not minding big trouble really dig a huge wave of pits for Fang Ziye, and Fang Ziye can't be bothered to guard against them.

Although Fang Ziye could also change the streaming format and rhythm, after all he's still relatively busy right now; Fang Ziye has no time to mess with it in the short term.

Liu Huanglong doesn't struggle with this issue, just asks curiously: "First met by fluke, then because of Tongji Hospital you dropped another ruthless one on the research circle."

"This Teacher Zhang definitely befriended you because you can amplify indiscriminately, right?"

Well known, academic competition isn't real war, so there's no specially regulated form; sometimes not even a fuse is needed.

Naturally there's no such thing as firepower constraints either.

As long as you're formidable enough to discover flaws in others' papers, using a nuke to swat a mosquito is fine.

Even scholars with great academic achievements, if their research direction is wrong, can lead others astray, achieving nothing for life.

In academia, people who can unleash indiscriminate attacks are few.

Physics academia occasionally sees it, but medical academia sees it very rarely; once it appears, it gets recorded in medical history.

And as research develops deeper and deeper, the difficulty of indiscriminate attack gets higher and higher, and the time span inevitably gets wider and wider...

"About right." Fang Ziye returned a smiling face, not daring to say he was actively baiting.

Even his most favored Master thinks he's crazy; Liu Huanglong would only think he's walking further and further down the suicide path.

Because Liu Huanglong understands the gold content and energy of Academicians better than maybe anyone else at Zhongnan Hospital; he himself is a beneficiary.

Liu Huanglong hesitated, then asked hesitantly: "Ziye, the next few days, will I have a chance to visit with you?"

Today already has an appointment, and it was Liu Huanglong who proposed it; counting it up, he's the one seeking an audience; he absolutely cannot be absent.

"Teacher Liu, don't probe me."

"Me being able to get Teacher Zhang's time today was still luck."

"Want more after getting it?" Fang Ziye finished, frowned, and looked Liu Huanglong up and down for a while.

This remark is very ambiguous and very offensive.

Liu Huanglong immediately, like a cat whose tail was stepped on, had his eyebrows shoot up; he lifted his chin: "Don't listen to those messy rumors in the department!"

Liu Huanglong's wife has almost never appeared at Zhongnan Hospital; Liu Huanglong's Old Mount Tai is a big Academician.

Therefore people speculate Liu Huanglong is a pure 'Academic Grandpa', the type who specially serves people. The counterpart is Academic Beauty.

At least those who dare joke with Liu Huanglong occasionally say Liu Huanglong's pressure is huge; every night he has to thrust several hundred jin...

Conversation not clicking, hurriedly change the topic.

Liu Huanglong continues: "Ziye, when do you plan to hold the wedding? How come there's been no related news recently?"

"Not urgent yet; wait until after the New Year, already picking a good date."

"When I have time, I'll definitely notify Teacher Liu right away." Fang Ziye replied politely.

Upon hearing this, Liu Huanglong suddenly said in a low, drawn-out tone: "Actually... settling down early is also extremely good."

Fang Ziye looked at Liu Huanglong in bewilderment, but Liu Huanglong had already turned his head away, leaving Fang Ziye with an inscrutable profile.

……

Jingdu, a certain hotel.

Fang Ziye was vetted several times before entering the room assigned to him.

The moment he pushed open the carved bronze door, Fang Ziye was rooted to the spot by the agarwood scent that rushed at him.

On the entire foyer screen made of Burma rosewood, the "Thousand Li River and Mountains" inlaid with gold-thread nanmu wood circulated an amber halo under the spotlights. He noticed that extremely fine gold threads were hidden in the warp and weft of the Persian carpet underfoot; every step felt like treading on a flowing galaxy.

The smart butler system sensed the occupant and automatically raised the blackout curtains. Outside the floor-to-ceiling window, the Forbidden City's golden glazed tiles flickered in the twilight, like a dormant giant dragon. Fang Ziye's fingers brushed the edge of the bronze bathtub; the icy touch reminded him of the metallic luster of surgical instruments. In the water's reflection, his own brows and eyes blurred into a pale mist.

It looked unimpressive, especially since both the exterior and the corridor's decor resembled the nouveau riche style.

But only after truly entering his own room did Fang Ziye truly realize what is called low-key luxury.

The room's facilities were all complete.

Disinfected sleepwear, pajamas, tea leaves, brand-new tea sets, a fully automatic tea-making system, and even a tea room, high-end ashtrays, even the carpet on the floor — Fang Ziye felt were all very out of the ordinary.

The sleepwear and pajamas were all brand-new after disinfection, not the reused kind.

The tea was good tea; it smelled quite nice, and there were black tea, green tea, Longjing Tea Tea, and so on...

Even the water for brewing tea wasn't purified water filtered from tap water, but proper mountain spring water — at least that's what the bottle label indicated.

The floor-to-ceiling window's dimming glass was transitioning from frosted to transparent; the Forbidden City corner tower's silhouette emerged in the twilight, like an anatomical specimen soaked in formalin.

Fang Ziye's fingers stroked the silk throw pillow at the foot of the bed; the slippery sensation from his fingertips reminded him of the omentum fat touched during surgery.

After Fang Ziye put down his luggage, Professor Zhang Limin's call came in.

"Teacher Zhang." Fang Ziye was still examining and marveling at the luxury; his voice was clear and crisp.

"Professor Fang, I've sent you the location. Come over first." Professor Zhang Limin's voice was rather serious; though polite, it brooked no refusal.

Perhaps this is the real Professor Zhang Limin.

"Okay, Teacher Zhang, I just put down my luggage." Fang Ziye replied.

"Mm, I figured you should've arrived at the hotel by this time too." Professor Zhang Limin hung up; obviously the follow-up words were inconvenient to say over the phone.

……

Fang Ziye and Professor Zhang Limin met in a teahouse; when Fang Ziye arrived, Professor Zhang Limin had already arrived early.

Professor Zhang Limin's left index finger was tracing circles along the rim of the celadon tea bowl; the glaze rubbing against his fingerprint emitted a fine buzzing sound.

Various tea caddies were placed haphazardly on the purple sandalwood antique rack.

"Teacher Zhang." After Fang Ziye pushed the door open and entered, he saw Professor Zhang Limin stuffing snacks into his own mouth.

"Professor Fang, I just ordered some things at random, and there's tea. If you don't like them, you can order more of what you like." Zhang Limin said politely.

"No need, Professor Zhang." Fang Ziye replied somewhat guiltily, his eyeballs rolling slowly.

"Don't refuse; our conversation today won't end in a short while, it might even make us miss mealtime."

"When you gave me trouble, you weren't this polite." Zhang Limin said with a hearty laugh.

Fang Ziye hurriedly sat down and explained: "Teacher Zhang, I explained to you at the first opportunity, didn't I? You said I could come find you later to discuss, so I took it seriously."

"However, Professor Zhang, this matter involves rather sensitive parties. If you make me go deep into it, I fundamentally can't hold up the face for this matter, and can only retreat and avoid it."

"Chinese herbal medicine causes cancer?"

"Teacher Zhang, if it weren't for your promise, I would've taken off my clothes and quit long ago."

"Even now, I've already imagined how the news will be written at that time!" Fang Ziye's voice grew quieter and quieter.

Chinese medicine treats both root and branch; Chinese medicine is the essence of herbs, has no toxic side effects; Chinese medicine is the Dao, Chinese medicine is natural substances...

These concepts have already taken deep root in people's hearts. At this time, popping out such a matter, anyone doing this would be labeled with the hat of "stifling Chinese medicine development."

Once such a hat is put on, Fang Ziye even fears he'll be assassinated by extremists.

"Do you know how large the Chinese patent medicine market scale is now?" Professor Zhang Limin suddenly asked, his voice like sandpaper scraping raw iron.

The old clock in the hidden compartment happened to chime the hour; the copper-gilded pendulum's swaying rhythm overlapped with Fang Ziye's suddenly accelerated heartbeat.

The aroma of sugar-roasted chestnuts drifted from outside the window, yet was pressed down by the heavy aged Puerh scent inside the room until it was suffocating.

Zhang Limin's sudden motion of using a tea needle to pry open the Puerh tea cake was extremely like separating the mesentery adhering to a tumor.

As the twenty-year-aged tea crumbs scattered down, Fang Ziye smelled a stimulating odor similar to xylene in the pathology department — that is the ortho-quinone substances produced by tea polyphenol oxidation.

"The sensitivity of this matter goes far beyond that!"

"Professor Fang, you currently have the label of Old Chinese Doctor Chen pasted on you. I investigated Old Professor Chen; he is the number one figure of anti-Chinese-medicine orthodox Chinese medicine."

"To this day, he is still excluded from the Chinese medicine circle by the Chinese medicine circle..."

"This time, the increased cancer incidence in several nearby villages, you deduced it might come from a certain 'Old Chinese Doctor's' 'folk remedy'?"

"But he can do such things because he is he; this kind of thing, you?"

"How do you explain?" Zhang Limin cast a contemptuous gaze, but his double eyelids quickly retracted.

Fang Ziye noticed the Qinghua porcelain jar on the second shelf of the antique rack bore the PUMC 1921 emblem; the jar mouth's sealing wax had developed spiderweb cracks. When Zhang Limin poured the tea soup into the ice-crack-patterned tea bowls, the brown liquid surged through the crackle lines, precisely like contrast agent diffusing through tumor neovascularization in imaging.

"So, Teacher Zhang, I am the one with the most self-awareness."

"If I can do it, I'll do it; if I can't, forget it."

"Up to now, only I and you, Teacher Zhang, know about this matter. If you don't agree, this secret I will never speak of again nor mention again." Fang Ziye spoke properly and dutifully.

Zhang Limin looked at Fang Ziye with a conflicted gaze: "Professor Fang, the World Health Organization International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has identified so many Group 1 carcinogens, such as chemical agents, microorganisms, smoking, etc."

"You ignore all these, how come you directly pointed the spearhead at Chinese medicine?"

"I still haven't figured it out until now."

After seeing the materials Fang Ziye sent him, Zhang Limin even now still has emotions struggling in conflict.

IARC classifies substances into different groups based on their relevance to cancer:

Group 1: Substances known to be carcinogenic to humans. Group 2A: Probably carcinogenic to humans (stronger evidence). Group 2B: Possibly carcinogenic to humans (weaker evidence). Group 3: Not classifiable as to carcinogenicity to humans.

Chinese herbal medicine is currently positioned as Group 3.

"Even if you don't target Group 1, targeting Group 2 would be good too, right?" Zhang Limin added with a pained expression.

Zhang Limin is an Academician, but he doesn't dare to easily express a stance either.

Otherwise, given the emotions and tempers of our countrymen, they would absolutely point fingers and scold, scold your ancestors for eighteen generations, even stab you in the back, spread rumors that you collude with traitors and sell out the country.

"Professor Zhang, could it not be this one doctor's problem? For example, using the wrong prescription, or the wrong dosage?"

"Does it have to rise to such a height?" Fang Ziye asked.

"Let me tell you, the current reality is just like this! ~"

"I don't know why either, but in recent years, our country's medical expenses related to Chinese herbal medicine and Chinese patent medicine have already surpassed the drug expenses of modern medicine."

"But! ~"

"There is a tiny bit of a gap in the number of patients seen by the two." Zhang Limin put it this way.

After speaking, Zhang Limin expressed himself with particular caution: "These data are limited to the information I found."

To tell the truth, Fang Ziye initially didn't think in this direction at all; what he thought of first was chemical raw materials.

But there were no chemical-related factories nearby, only a pig farm.

But chemical carcinogens are actually still relatively the easiest to investigate; the state's control over this aspect is very strict.

And if it's not chemical products, Fang Ziye also wondered if it could be that dish soap wasn't used correctly, and the nearby villages used that kind of counterfeit and shoddy product.

But later it was verified that there wasn't any; they were all common ones on the market.

Microorganisms aren't either……

What Professor Zhou Yan represents is not merely a laboratory, nor merely a top-tier famous hospital like Xiangya Hospital; what they represent is not even merely the medical industry.

And under such circumstances, Professor Zhou Yan's team and others actually all came up empty-handed, which proves that this suspicious new carcinogen is truly very new.

Zhang Limin asked: "Professor Fang, are you sure, in the laboratory, you obtained relevant supporting evidence?"

Fang Ziye nodded and then shook his head: "Professor Zhang, I don't dare to directly use the finished product; I only did a part of the structure."

"But Professor Zhang, this medicine is now publicly recognized as the Chinese herbal medicine with the most hope of becoming an anti-cancer drug."

"Stop talking for now." Zhang Limin, hearing this, looked left and right.

After Zhang Limin looked left and right and confirmed no one was there, he said: "Don't speak first, don't say any substantive words."

"Let's discuss other possibilities first, for example, the problem of compatibility?"

"The problem of dosage, etc."

Zhang Limin first had Fang Ziye not easily draw conclusions.

Fang Ziye hurriedly said very cautiously: "Yes, Teacher Zhang, it's possible, it's a possibility……"

This kind of thing, now Fang Ziye doesn't even dare to tell Chen Song.

Because according to what Fang Ziye knows, the laboratory in the sanatorium has a team doing basic experiments on Chinese herbal medicine anti-cancer, feeling that many Chinese herbal medicines after purification can be used for the treatment of a certain cancer.

Analogous reference to artemisinin and malaria.

"This opening is not good to open, and won't be opened especially easily."

"Professor Fang, you can also think, is there a possibility of other factors, for example Group 1 or Group 2 substances, preferably existing ones."

"Even if not currently recognized carcinogens, it's best to be an inorganic substance or a synthetic product."

"Even a new fungus, bacteria, or virus would do."

"Find a transit point." Zhang Limin tapped the tabletop with his right hand.

"First show an attitude, Professor Fang, we're not being cowards, this is the methodology of saving the country by a circuitous route."

"First find an objectively existing third substance, first prove this third substance has relevance, then go confirm a certain prescription has a real linear correlation with the third substance."

"This is the steadiest……"

On the sandalwood tea table rose curling green smoke; the agarwood of aged Puerh in the purple clay teapot permeated the office. Academician Zhang Limin's right index finger and middle finger alternately tapped the zitan wood tabletop; that rhythm was extremely like the heartbeat sound of the monitor on the operating table.

"Professor Zhang, this isn't right? Fang Ziye's Adam's apple rolled as he swallowed the bitterness in his throat; fingertips unconsciously stroked the ice crack pattern on the celadon cup rim. Outside the window, parasol tree leaf shadows slanted through the blinds, cutting across his thin face, splitting those amber eyes into interlaced fragments of light and dark."

The sound of boiling water from the tea room suddenly turned sharp, just like his taut nerves at this moment. Zhang Limin lifted the Jun kiln sky-blue glaze ice crack pattern teacup, tilted his head and drank the tea soup dry in a motion with the cleanness of a scalpel; the swallowing sound in his throat was especially clear in the silent office."

"This has nothing to do with whether you're from the epidemiological investigation group. Zhang Limin set the tea bowl heavily on the case; the years sedimented in the wood grain trembled along with it. Your identity badge, from the day you stepped into the sanatorium, was branded on your spine."

He lightly tapped his own temple; gray-white temple hair was plated with silver edges in the backlight. "You're young, you haven't seen the bloody storms of decades ago."

"Back when Elder Chen proposed rectifying the Chinese medicine circle, I was still at Johns Hopkins gnawing sandwiches. Zhang Limin used forceps to pick up the Puerh on the tea tray; deep brown tea cake crumbs fell rustling into the Jingdezhen blue-and-white porcelain tea tray. He advocated 'Chinese medicine has no folk remedies,' wanted to clear out the quack doctors who couldn't do pattern identification from the apricot grove — do you know how many people's rice bowls that was equivalent to overturning?"

(Chapter End)