Chapter 115: The Germ Of The Research Project!
The dining table was clean, set with the standard three dishes and one soup. As Mu Nanshu brought the rice out of the kitchen, Lu Cheng had just finished washing his hands and walked towards the table.
“Do you want to drink some wine? I still have a few bottles of red wine at home,” Mu Nanshu suggested.
“You drink now?” Lu Cheng asked, quite surprised.
“I learned two years ago. Back then, Sister Xie was under a lot of pressure when she went abroad, so we drank a little together.”
“I’ll go get cups…” Mu Nanshu walked towards the kitchen again.
Lu Cheng saw that Mu Nanshu was wearing the pearl stud earrings he had bought for her, which he had bought for her during his undergraduate years. After so many years, they hadn’t fallen out or been thrown away.
“It’s just ordinary wine, it doesn’t have the strong taste of liquor. I don’t know if you’ll get used to it,” Mu Nanshu said.
Lu Cheng stepped forward to help open the bottle: “I don’t drink much, so it’s fine either way.”
After using the corkscrew to pull out the cork, Lu Cheng poured the wine into a decanter and asked, “I heard from Teacher Xie Yuan’an that you often get home after midnight these days.”
“Is the scientific research pressure where you work that high?”
Although Xie Yuan’an was his ‘supervising teacher’, after completing the basic theoretical courses, she was also one of the ‘students’ in subsequent classes, just attending as an auditor.
Lu Cheng would occasionally inquire about Mu Nanshu’s affairs from Xie Yuan’an.
“To be honest, doing scientific research full-time at Xiehe Hospital is quite stressful. And I’ve just started working, so if I don’t try hard, I won’t be able to keep up with the pace of the research group.”
“The research group here has a completely different direction from my previous boss, so I have to get familiar with everything again. I also need to find my own research direction and ideas, which will definitely take some time,” Mu Nanshu replied lightly.
Having taken off her apron from the kitchen, she beckoned Lu Cheng to start eating: “Let’s talk while we eat. My cooking is just so-so, edible.”
Lu Cheng picked up a piece of chili-glazed pork ribs, took a bite, and said, “Although E Province and Xiang Province are neighbors, the flavor of my Long County can only be replicated in Long County. Outside of Long County, the taste is always slightly adjusted.”
“Pork ribs that are this spicy are the authentic ones,” Lu Cheng sucked the meat off the ribs in one bite and then continued to devour them.
Mu Nanshu, as a cook, was quite happy to see Lu Cheng eating like this. She also picked up a rib and put it in her mouth, then chewed and swallowed slowly.
Lu Cheng is a carbohydrate-based organism, so he eats quite quickly.
In the last ten minutes or so, after finishing four and a half bowls of rice from Mu Nanshu’s small bowl, Lu Cheng finally stopped: “So satisfying, delicious.”
The portions of the dishes Mu Nanshu prepared were very generous and hearty, fitting the ‘Xiangxi’ style. Two-thirds of the ribs were eaten, half of the stir-fried pork with chili, two-thirds of a cabbage, and the seaweed egg drop soup was almost untouched.
“Want a little sip?” Lu Cheng raised his cup and invited Mu Nanshu.
Mu Nanshu nodded, clinked her cup with Lu Cheng’s, and took a small sip. She was already eight-tenths full, but she didn’t put down her chopsticks for fear that Lu Cheng would lose his appetite eating alone.
The red wine slid down her esophagus into her stomach with no particular aftertaste. Mu Nanshu asked, “Sister Xie said Professor Zhong has taken a liking to you.”
“In Long County, Professor Chen Song owes you a great debt of gratitude for recognizing your talent. He also wants to bring you back. Have you thought about what you’re going to do?”
Professor Zhong Junyun’s special request for Lu Cheng to meet him was not a secret. Professor Xie Xiao, as a full senior professor in the department, could easily learn about the conversation between Zhong Junyun and Lu Cheng.
Perhaps, in Professor Zhong Junyun’s eyes, taking on Lu Cheng was a casual act, not something that needed to be kept secret.
Lu Cheng said, “Professor Zhong is a top national professor in hand surgery. His personal promise carries significant weight, and I can indeed learn true techniques by following him.”
“However, a verbal commitment is one thing. Whether I will completely follow Professor Zhong’s plan afterwards remains to be seen.”
“Professor Zhong agreed to my idea: I will be promoted to deputy senior professional title first, and then I will come to study under him.”
“There is still a long time before that.”
Mu Nanshu was stunned for a moment, her expression slightly surprised: “You don’t plan to follow the arrangements Professor Zhong gave you?”
Lu Cheng: “I will respect them and listen to them, but I won’t follow them word for word.”
“Professor Zhong and I only met briefly, so his current arrangements are based on this momentary understanding, not necessarily the optimal solution.”
Mu Nanshu pressed, “Then what do you consider the optimal solution?”
Lu Cheng said, “I haven’t quite figured it out yet. I definitely need to improve my academic qualifications, otherwise, I’ll always be constrained, but how to do that still requires help.”
After speaking, Lu Cheng looked at Mu Nanshu, scanning her up and down. Then, he fixed his gaze on her eyes, which he liked to look at the most.
Familiar peach blossom eyes, a familiar small brown mole at the corner of her eye, and familiar ink-black pupils.
Her pupils were quite clear.
“How can I help you?” Mu Nanshu asked.
Of course, after asking, Mu Nanshu added, “I heard Sister Xie say that your clinical talent is really good, and it’s not the kind of ‘good’ I’m talking about.”
“In just these past few days, your progress rate in nerve suturing technique has even made several professors marvel.”
“They are experienced surgeons in hand surgery, and they say you have great talent, so it must be truly good.”
“My idea is that you should resign after you go back, then pursue graduate studies and a doctorate full-time, and then ask the professors here if they can allow you to graduate and defend with a clinical research project.”
“Although basic research projects are the mainstream in medical competition, direct, practical projects are still clinical ones.”
Lu Cheng nodded: “Your suggestion is also very good, and like that of other teachers, it’s a relatively good solution. But my own consideration is that for me personally, it’s not the most optimal solution.”
“What I need your help with is how I can start from knowing nothing and then completely complete a relatively standard clinical research project.”
Mu Nanshu’s eyebrows furrowed slightly, her slender brows arching a little—
“What clinical project can you possibly have yourself?”
“Regarding the tendon suturing technique I mentioned to you last time, isn’t the current situation that the suturing technique pioneered by Professor Tong’s team at Xiangya Hospital is not superior to the Tajima Suturing Technique?” Lu Cheng said.
Mu Nanshu was not dull-witted and was filled with astonished disbelief, her voice slightly sharp: “Don’t tell me you’ve improved upon Professor Tong’s team’s technique?”
Lu Cheng looked at his panel and then nodded slightly: “Perhaps that’s the case. It’s not easy to give a final judgment yet.”
“But I am confident in it myself. I also participated in an animal model experiment comparing the efficacy of the technique with Professor Tong Yuan’an last time, so I believe it won’t be difficult to obtain preliminary data for a research project.”
Mu Nanshu stated with certainty: “No, you don’t have money!”
“You don’t have funding, you can’t do it!”
“If you were to self-fund, you wouldn’t be able to afford it! So you need to be affiliated.”
Lu Cheng was not entirely ignorant of research, and he nodded: “This is what I need to discuss with Teacher Chen.”
“Teacher Chen truly recognized my talent, and the debt of gratitude is immeasurable and difficult to repay, so I can only reciprocate with sincerity.”
