Chapter 103 - 102: Putting on an Act
Chapter 103: Chapter 102: Putting on an Act
It was almost dawn when he got back to the dorm.
Luckily, Jiang He didn’t have classes, so he slept straight through until noon.
After getting up, washing his face, and going through his daily routine of meticulously replying to his girlfriend’s messages and answering a few questions on the forum, Jiang He headed to the on-campus Left Bank Cafe.
The second floor of the cafe had several private rooms partitioned off, each with a whiteboard, specially designed for student club meetings or group discussions.
For now, even though the team was fully assembled,
the project was still stuck at square one.
First, they didn’t have a lab that met the required standards, and second, they had no funding for equipment.
During this downtime, the experiments couldn’t move forward, so Jiang He could only gather everyone outside the lab to give them lectures on theory.
This initial theoretical grounding was necessary.
Once the experiments were in full swing, they would face a massive number of sample extractions and trial-and-error sessions every day. It would be impossible for him to be holed up in the lab alone.
He needed the team members to quickly grasp the core concepts and operational procedures (and become his workhorses) so that he could free himself up to manage the bigger picture.
Inside the private room, the six team members had all arrived on time.
However... the atmosphere in the room was a bit delicate.
Ever since the life-or-death crisis of his girlfriend’s severe pancreatitis, Gu Yizhou had become serious and taciturn.
And sitting across from him, Yi Xiangwan, was the complete opposite.
The guy was trying to lighten the mood with a joke about short people.
"You know, I’ve always thought that short people are actually the most suited for scientific research."
Playing along, Tang Pei asked, "Why?"
"Because we’re closer to the lab bench! When you guys look at the centrifuge, you have to bend over. I can just look straight ahead to see if it’s balanced!"
Tang Pei forced a smile. "Heh, interesting."
Chen Hao added, "True enough."
Gu Yizhou looked up, frowning. "Xiangwan, can you stop messing around?"
Yi Xiangwan was taken aback. "Huh? Was I bothering you? Sorry, sorry, my bad."
Gu Yizhou sighed. He really didn’t know how to deal with someone like Yi Xiangwan.
Yi Xiangwan, for his part, felt awkward seeing Gu Yizhou so serious.
The two of them... were just naturally incompatible.
Jiang He took it all in but wasn’t concerned.
’Everyone has different experiences, which naturally shapes their personalities.’
’But as long as they were all headed in the same general direction, there wouldn’t be any problems.’
Walking forward, Jiang He said, "Sorry to keep you waiting."
Everyone greeted him.
"Morning, Old Jiang."
"Morning~"
"Morning, Boss."
Jiang He gave a brief nod, then got straight to work. "Today, we’re going to focus on the first step after the project begins: total RNA extraction from serum."
’No small talk? He’s just jumping right in?’
Everyone was taken aback for a moment.
Then they quickly pulled out their notepads and pens, ready to take notes.
「Half an hour later.」
Chen Hao sat by the window, his thoughts drifting.
He suddenly felt... that the person before him was completely different from the Jiang He he used to know.
’Just a month ago, the two of us were a real pair of geniuses, pulling all-nighters at internet cafes and surviving on instant noodles. Back in the dorm, we’d even debate which of the newly debuted Hatano Yui or Sakurai Ria was hotter...’
’And now? Now he still talks about "masters," but the masters are Professor Ambros and Professor Croce.’
Jiang He was saying, "...so, the traditional TRIzol reagent isn’t applicable here. We need to use TRIzol LS, which is for liquids, and adjust the ratio of the lysis buffer in the first step."
Chen Hao snapped back to his senses.
He blinked and looked down at the notebook in front of him.
’Wait.’
’Where is he in the lecture now? Has it only been half a damn minute?’
’A moment ago, he was talking about choosing the extraction method. How are we already on to lysis buffer ratios and isopropanol precipitation? What did I miss?’
Cold sweat beaded on Chen Hao’s forehead. Seeing that Jiang He was about to turn and move on to the next step, he quickly raised his hand.
"Um... sorry, bro, I zoned out for a second and missed a small part. Could you go over it again?"
Jiang He nodded. "Okay, I’ll go over the drawbacks of the conventional extraction method again. Everyone, take this down. This step is crucial."
After speaking, he paused for a moment and said, "For now, don’t think of the whole project as too complicated. Once the lab is set up, our only task for the first few weeks will be to hammer away at this one step."
"Draw blood, separate the serum by centrifugation, add the lysis buffer, add chloroform for extraction, and finally, precipitate with isopropanol."
"Remember, the abundance of serum RNA is extremely low. The values on the spectrophotometer are most likely misleading. During the first precipitation step, you must add glycogen as a co-precipitant. The final extraction quality will be determined directly by the Ct value from the subsequent RT-qPCR."
Everyone nodded, their pens scribbling furiously on paper.
The two-hour theoretical breakdown ended quickly.
Jiang He said, "That’s all for today. Everyone go back and run through the steps in your head a few times."
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief and began to organize the materials and notes on the table.
Cheng Xiyao discussed something in a low voice with Tang Pei while packing up her papers.
Just then, there was a knock on the door of the private room.
Xu Chen politely pushed the door open and entered.
He had somehow found out that Jiang He’s group was meeting here and came sniffing around.
"Jiang He, busy?"
Jiang He shook his head. "Not really. What’s up?"
Xu Chen walked to the table, gave a light cough, casually flicked back his white coat, and slid a hand into his pocket.
Wearing a hospital white coat in a non-clinical area was actually very unprofessional.
Xu Chen knew this, so he had specifically bought a white coat for daily wear. He had no other reason; he simply thought it looked cool.
"Nothing major. I just came from Professor Sun’s office and checked my email. My advisor asked me to confirm the final typeset proof."
He paused for a moment, as if waiting for someone to ask.
Lu Xiaolin, as a master’s student, was naturally more sensitive to things like papers and casually asked, "You published an article? What kind of journal?"
This question was exactly what Xu Chen was hoping for.
"A review article on the management of complications in acute severe pancreatitis."
Xu Chen said nonchalantly, "Submitted it to the *Chinese Journal of General Surgery*."
As soon as he said this, everyone in the room paused what they were doing.
Even though it was just a review article, getting it published in a core domestic journal in the field of general surgery was an undeniable major achievement for an undergraduate.
Xu Chen looked at everyone’s surprised expressions and felt a wave of satisfaction wash over him.
He’d been holding in so much frustration recently.
From being utterly crushed by Jiang He’s blind suturing technique in the advanced class, to his "white moonlight" ignoring him and starting to pay attention to Jiang He, and then to seeing his own uncle, Lin Peidong, being so polite to Jiang He at Affiliated Hospital No. 1...
He couldn’t swallow this humiliation.
Today, he had finally reclaimed his pride.
’So what if you’re good at clinical skills? You don’t have any publications, kid!’
—’Heh heh... My dear Jiang He, you really need to study harder and practice more. Keep trying, maybe one day you’ll catch up to me! Heh heh heh!’