Chapter 298 - 203: Professor Sun: If I Can’t Beat You, Can I Join?

Chapter 298: Chapter 203: Professor Sun: If I Can’t Beat You, Can I Join?

The surgery concluded successfully.

The same old story.

The very best kind of story.

Jiang He washed his hands and returned to the locker room.

He took a satsuma from his locker and peeled it.

He took a bite. It was still good.

Not a hint of bitterness. But it made him think back to those years... those very risqué years.

...

Back when Xiaojiang was an exchange student in Beijing, his seniors at the hospital chewed him out every single day.

Fortunately, no matter how late he came home, Teacher Shen was always there waiting for him.

Such a gentle Teacher Shen.

She would draw a hot bath for him and add some mugwort. She said it was a traditional Chinese medicine packet she’d learned to make herself, a way to save their little family some money.

Then she would crouch on the floor, take off Jiang He’s socks, and soak his feet in the hot water.

She’d pretend to be disgusted, wash her hands, then walk over to the bed to give Jiang He a massage.

Her soft voice would whisper in his ear:

"You worked so hard today, Dr. Jiang."

Jiang He always felt that when it came to this, his wife was a total succubus.

She clearly had no intention of seducing him—she just wanted to be good to him—but she was endlessly enchanting all the same.

Teacher Shen’s massage technique was also very professional.

When he asked who she learned from, she said she practiced by giving her grandma massages.

Jiang He offered a silent prayer of thanks to her grandma.

After she had been massaging him for a while,

Jiang He tilted his head back, looked at Shen Yu’s face, and couldn’t help but grab her wrist. "Honey," he asked softly, "why are you so good to me?"

Shen Yu would smile radiantly and say, "Because I’m fond of you."

He laughed and pinched her cheek. "Learning Cantonese again?"

Shen Yu giggled, resting her chin on his forehead. "Yup. I’m afraid if I can’t speak Cantonese, our parents won’t like me..."

Jiang He couldn’t take it anymore. He spun around to kiss her.

"Hey, stop fooling around, you’re still soaking your feet..."

Shen Yu laughed and dodged, refusing to let him land a kiss.

With a "tsk," Jiang He pounced, pushing her down onto the bed.

Pinned to the bed, Shen Yu stopped dodging. There was nowhere left to hide.

Jiang He braced his arms on either side of her head.

Shen Yu quietly gazed back at him.

Their eyes were filled to the brim with an overflowing love.

After a moment of gazing into each other’s eyes, Shen Yu wrapped her arms around Jiang He’s neck and pulled him in for a kiss.

Jiang He’s hands expertly found their place.

After a long kiss, a slightly breathless Shen Yu pulled back half an inch. She tapped Jiang He’s lips, her voice full of concern. "Your lips are so dry, they’re starting to chap."

As she spoke, she turned to the side and picked up a segment of satsuma from the nightstand.

She put the segment in her mouth, bit into the pulp, and leaned forward again, feeding him the sweet, fresh juice mouth-to-mouth.

So risqué.

How could Jiang He possibly hold back after that?

He immediately lifted Teacher Shen’s nightgown to her waist—

KNOCK KNOCK.

Someone was knocking on the door.

Jiang He snapped back to reality. Yang Xu was outside, also peeling an orange.

His mentor saw Jiang He staring silently at the orange.

He offered the remaining half to Jiang He. "Want some?"

Jiang He sighed. "Sure."

"I spoke with the old woman. The surgery was a success—we got the tumor out cleanly and the biliary-enteric anastomosis went smoothly. She’s been safely transferred to the ICU for observation. When the old woman heard the news, she almost fell to her knees. The head nurse had to hold her up. It hasn’t been easy for Old Zhao’s family."

Jiang He said nothing, just kept eating his orange.

Yang Xu thought for a moment, then said, "Jiang He, you wait here and don’t move. I’m going to go buy some oranges."

Jiang He: "?"

For a moment, he couldn’t tell if his mentor was just teasing him or being serious.

Yang Xu continued, "Everyone in our department has been working so hard lately, practically around the clock. I was thinking, why don’t we just buy a few hundred pounds of oranges directly from the old woman? We can distribute them to all the doctors and nurses in the department as a little bonus."

Jiang He understood. He replied gently,

"Okay, Mentor. Can you buy some for me, too? I’ll take them back to school and share them with my classmates. The project team has been pulling a lot of all-nighters lately, so it’ll be a nice treat for everyone."

Yang Xu smiled. "You punk. You’re an independent medical team leader now, with the salary of an associate chief. You should buy at least two hundred pounds."

"Alright, no problem. There are plenty of people at the university; they’ll definitely get eaten."

Under the cold hospital lights,

the two men were filled with goodwill.

"Speaking of the project team..." Yang Xu cleared his throat. "We don’t have any other surgeries scheduled today. Perfect time to take a trip to the university, don’t you think?"

Jiang He tilted his head. "Why go to the university?"

"To see how your miRNA early screening project is coming along, of course. As your mentor, I have to keep a close eye on your research progress. Besides, we need to tell them about buying the oranges, and... we can bring a few for them to try."

Jiang He chuckled to himself.

’Checking on the project is just an excuse, and so is bringing oranges. The real reason is he wants to see Professor Wang Xiaoqing!’

"Of course, Mentor. Let’s go."

...

On the way to Southern Medical University, Yang Xu drove.

"So, Jiang He, are Professor Wang and the others running into any difficulties in the lab?"

Jiang He answered casually, "We were just stuck on the RNA extraction step. The concentration of cell-free nucleic acid in the serum is too low, and the protein content is high. The Trizol method easily introduces impurities, so we couldn’t get the A260/280 ratio up."

"So how did you solve it?" Yang Xu began to fish for information.

Jiang He smiled, knowing exactly what his mentor was up to, and explained in detail:

"We use a double chloroform extraction with glycogen co-precipitation. After the first centrifugation with chloroform, we aspirate the supernatant, transfer it to a new centrifuge tube, and add an equal volume of chloroform for a second round. That removes most of the protein contamination. To solve the low concentration issue, we add five microliters of 5 mg/ml glycogen as a co-precipitant right before isopropanol precipitation."

Yang Xu nodded repeatedly.

Half an hour later, the two of them arrived at the university lab, carrying a bag of oranges.

Hearing the door open, everyone looked up.

"Director Yang?"

"Boss?"

"Come on, everyone, take a break from your work for ten minutes," Yang Xu called out enthusiastically. "Jiang He and I brought you some satsumas. Give them a try, they’re really sweet."