Chapter 551 - 281: You Can Never Be Too Cautious! (Part 2)

I initially thought Professor Tian recognized my talent, but it turns out there's this vague connection of being from the same hometown.

It's not like overseas; Professor Tian is someone of stature here and likely wouldn't engage in exploiting a fellow townsman.

"Work hard. If the opportunity arises, remember to improve your qualifications."

"Your current academic level is somewhat holding you back."

"I need to go too. Let's chat later." Professor Tian ended the conversation proactively.

Lu Cheng didn't bother him further, stood up, and took out his backpack. The envelope he had given to Professor Tian was indeed untouched inside.

"I got a week's worth of advice from Professor Tian for free," Lu Cheng said.

Originally, five thousand yuan a week was a bargain for Professor Tian's advice, a discounted rate only because Lu Cheng relied on connections.

Now Professor Tian gave it back to him.

Mu Nanshu said, "It's alright, someone of Professor Tian's status can afford to speak about ideals without missing those few bucks."

Lu Cheng laughed, putting the envelope back: "Can't ignore practical needs when talking about ideals, but whether to speak of ideals is a personal choice."

"In a few days, I'll buy some quality cured meat and give it to Professor Tian. He should be used to it."

Mu Nanshu nodded: "Xie Yuan'an's paper on tendon suturing techniques has been accepted."

"Second tier, article, not a high impact factor, only around two."

"There are many tendon suturing techniques, and this current technique is an improvement on an existing one."

"When Professor Chen's paper gets published, it'll definitely hit a score of four or five in the first tier!" Mu Nanshu said.

"For a paper on suturing techniques to be accepted in a second-tier journal is quite good. I think all technique papers should go to third tier, and only future papers on functional reconstruction and spleen preservation should aim for the first tier."

"After spleen preservation, there's also liver preservation."

"In fact, the output is pretty high." Lu Cheng laughed, crossing his arms.

"High? More like an impressive yield, right?"

Mu Nanshu said: "Although the impact factor for medical papers can be very high, for clinical techniques, getting into a second-tier journal is not easy at all."

"After all, the main focus of current medical research is on basic and cellular studies."

"It's already quite fortunate to have some journal space for clinical techniques. Look at the one Xiangya Hospital published? It was just in the fourth tier, almost a statistical source journal..."

SCI journals are also ranked: first to fourth tiers, statistical source, CSCD, with decreasing frequency of influence.

Some statistical source journals are even less than CSCD (core journals)!

"I suspect Director Huang only agreed to your leave because he saw this paper was accepted. Otherwise, it would have been hard to approve, given you just took leave last month."

Lu Cheng said, "If Director Huang didn't approve, I would have found other ways. But I feel we shouldn't think so poorly of him."

"At present, Director Huang treats me quite well. He has a strong sense of boundaries."

Mu Nanshu was slightly puzzled: "Boundaries?"

"Not involving oneself in matters outside one's responsibility. At Long County, Director Huang barely interacted with me. After arriving at Xiangzhou People's Hospital, he only approached me once, just about joining the team."

"As a leader, not interfering a lot is already something."

"There are many who still like to intervene and show off."

Lu Cheng hadn't encountered such pointless interferences, but he'd heard many stories from Brother Zhang Xibei.

Mu Nanshu thought for a while, then added: "Director Huang mentioned that he's more skilled in clinical-related legal affairs and not so much in research procedures."

"However, he recommended a friend of his who's specialized in patent legal affairs, but the fees are a bit high."

"How much per year?" Lu Cheng asked.

Mu Nanshu said, "Currently, it's on a per-job basis."

"That's alright. Our research group can't afford any kind of legal team at this stage, so cost-effectiveness is the best."

"Xiao Mumu, what do you think of Dai Linfang's suggestion?"

"He said we could open a small category and develop towards suturing instrument research, thus using research to drive project funding."

"My initial thought was to stick to proper research and directly sell patents of research results."

"This way, our tasks would be relatively purer," Lu Cheng explained his idea.

Mu Nanshu shook his head: "I don't know either. The country does support patent entrepreneurship, but once involved in entrepreneurship, it's bound to be distracting, and we won't be able to focus properly on work and clinicals."

"But Dr. Dai said, without our own funds, our future research is either aligned with national trends or serving local government achievements."

"That's quite true."

"When a project is applied for, apart from considering research factors, many other factors like region and networking are also taken into account."

"Therefore, larger international research groups have their own 'funding pools' rather than relying entirely on state funding."

"Apart from scientists of Elder Yuan's level, there are many constraints for others applying for projects. However, there are very few scientists like Elder Yuan."

"Sigh... we're still too young. Thinking about these things now is temporarily beyond our understanding."

Lu Cheng nodded: "Brother Dai and we have different perspectives, so whether it's small family or research group, when there's a cognitive disparity, reaching a consensus is difficult."

"From a subjective standpoint, I prefer to be pure, but objectively, you can't say Dai Linfang is wrong because we don't have the evidence."

"Let's focus on clinical work for now," Lu Cheng concluded the topic.

...

After getting off the high-speed train in Long County, Lu Cheng and Mu Nanshu drove straight to Ji City.

There's no direct high-speed train from Ji City to Rongcheng, but there is one from Long County.

The next day, it was Lu Cheng's turn for the new shift.

Even though Lu Cheng went to bed late, he got up early and rushed to the department.

After taking over Brother Chen Fang's night shift in the rescue room, Lu Cheng went into the lounge to have breakfast.

Dai Linfang arrived even earlier than Lu Cheng and had ordered noodles. As he added chili peppers, he spoke seriously: "Brother Lu, during the last shift, under my watch, we lost one."

During Lu Cheng's leave, Dai Linfang was covering the shift.

Lu Cheng was unfazed: "That's quite normal."

Dai Linfang is quite capable, and although he might not match Elder Chen Fang, he's more than enough compared to new specialists like Xiang Kai and Cao Gui.

The emergency surgery department at Xiangzhou People's Hospital has this foundation, and these two still regularly participate in duty shifts.

"Can't the blind hemostasis skill be learned through a routine?" Dai Linfang's tone was ethereal, momentarily perplexed.

Lu Cheng roughly guessed the cause of death: "Hasn't this been a fact proven by many teachers and predecessors?"

Dai Linfang slowly nodded: "What Heaven bestows is talent."

"Truly makes no damn sense."

Lu Cheng suggested, "Brother Dai, do you need a few days off? You've been juggling both wards and labs recently. You're a bit overworked."

Dai Linfang shook his head: "No need, I can manage, what is this?"

"Back when I was in the lab, I wouldn't leave for half a month, at most going downstairs for a run, that was tough."

"Unfortunately, endurance is the most useless effort."

"Oh, by the way, I've recently discussed with Professor Chen about the journal for submitting our paper, and we're still thinking of submitting to the first tier."

"It might take a bit more time."

Lu Cheng chuckled: "That's alright, for my promotion to associate senior, I have last year's published meta-analysis and an already accepted second-tier, which are more than sufficient here."

"I've also been practicing the basics." Dai Linfang muttered softly, and started eating the noodles.

Lu Cheng glanced at Dai Linfang with surprise; Dai kept his head down, eating in large bites, appearing a bit hungry, with a somewhat greedy demeanor.

On the surface, Lu Cheng said nothing, but internally, he was filled with emotion.

Dai Linfang was different from him; he could lead a decent life without much effort, yet he was still striving and working hard for his 'dream.'

Currently, he was going through a low point.