Chapter 648
Professor Huntington leaped up from behind his desk, pointing at the black leather sofa in the office with enthusiasm.
“Professor?” Song Cheng was taken aback, feeling as if he hardly recognized the man before him.
This person was far removed from the image of the professor he had heard about or remembered.
“Song, is there anything you’re not quite used to here?”
Huntington’s next question left him momentarily speechless, as if his ears had malfunctioned.
Could this warm inquiry really be coming from Professor Huntington?
“I... I’m getting used to it,” Song Cheng stammered, noticing a hint of urgency on Huntington’s face, as if he were unsure how to continue. He quickly added, “Professor, is there anything I can do for you?”
Sure enough, at this question, admiration filled Huntington’s eyes.
“Song? Do you know about that... Zheng Xianren?”
The name “Zheng Xianren” was spoken in Mandarin, which felt awkward to Song Cheng, but he understood:
“Of course I know.”
When the news first broke in the country, he had seen it but paid little attention, thinking it was just a rumor. Later, when the world changed dramatically, he witnessed strange phenomena in the sun and began to believe it to some extent. However, he was focused on his studies and work, and the matter felt too distant; the information he received was a mix of truth and falsehood, and he couldn’t make sense of it.
“Song, that Zheng Xianren has a nursing home. Do you know about it?”
“I do.”
“They’re hiring now.”
“Hiring?”
Song Cheng was increasingly puzzled, unsure why Professor Huntington was bringing this up.
“They’re looking for scholars in fields like medicine, pharmacy, and biology,” Huntington said, a fervent flush creeping onto his pale skin. “Including our neurosurgery and repair!”
“…”
Song Cheng’s mind was a jumble.
That Zheng Xianren was recruiting scholars?
What kind of research institution was a nursing home?
And…
“Professor, are you suggesting…”
“I’ve already applied!”
Huntington pointed at his computer and spoke quickly. “Fortunately, I meet their requirements.”
Song Cheng felt a wave of unease wash over him. “Professor, you’re going to the nursing home? What about our research group…”
“Unfortunately, you don’t qualify, but resigning is my freedom, right?”
The sky had fallen.
On his first day at work, the boss was running away.
“Professor, what about me!”
“Calm down,” Huntington said, raising a hand to signal him to be patient. “Song, I can give you a recommendation letter so you can learn from other professors. In fact, for any research group, whether or not they’re at the medical center, if you’re interested, I’ll do my best to connect you with people I know.”
Song Cheng was even more astonished.
This was quite a generous offer, and he didn’t have that deep a relationship with Professor Huntington.
After all, this was only their third meeting, and they had exchanged barely ten sentences.
Noticing the confusion on Song Cheng’s face, Huntington turned the computer screen toward him.
“The competition for positions at the nursing home is fierce; they have limited spots, and I know several qualified candidates are applying… my competitiveness isn’t the strongest.”
Song Cheng still didn’t grasp what Huntington was getting at.
“If I give you a recommendation letter, could you also provide me with one?”
“Me?”
Song Cheng was increasingly bewildered.
Huntington clicked a few times on his mouse, bringing up several web pages.
“Do you know these people?”
“...I do.”
“Rumor has it they’ve already entered the nursing home. I hope you can introduce me to them…” Huntington’s smile had a sly edge to it. “I’d like to ask about Zheng Xianren’s preferences.”
“…”
Looking at the three former classmates and professors on the computer screen, Song Cheng’s expression grew more dazed.
“Deal?”
Huntington seemed anxious now. “If you have any other requests, feel free to ask.”
“None…” Song Cheng sat there, feeling disheartened.
“Song?”
“Professor, I’m fine.”
He truly had no major issues.
It was just that after leaving home for over a decade, with his heart set on climbing the heights of medicine… the pinnacle of medicine had run off with long legs, back to his hometown.
No big deal.
…
When Zheng Fa saw Huntington walking into the nursing home with a report in hand, accompanied by a few others, he nodded to himself.
Little Hung is quite sensible.
Not only was he skilled in neurosurgery, but he also adapted well to the nursing home environment. He practiced Mandarin diligently, always smiling, and made a few friends among the residents. At the same time, he worked hard on his research, unwittingly becoming a cornerstone among the new foreign scholars.
Zheng Fa didn’t pay much attention to his little schemes.
He only cared about the progress of the research.
“Director,” Huntington said in a somewhat halting but fairly fluent Mandarin, “we’ve come up with a preliminary treatment plan.”
“The biggest issue with this patient is the excessive scar tissue in his body, which inhibits synapse growth.”
Treating Gu Chang was essentially about recreating a spiritual root.
The two were intertwined, with no need for separation.
Thus, this treatment plan was a collaboration of top experts from around the world, with a high level of specification.
After much experimentation and research, they had finally devised a feasible plan.
Scar tissue refers to the excessive proliferation of cells after an injury, which can affect the regrowth of nerves.
Gu Chang’s situation was just that:
He had abused his body for experiments, leaving it riddled with wounds. Although there were spiritual medicines for treatment, his nervous system couldn’t grow normally, resulting in him becoming a person without a spiritual root.
“Director, you mentioned using electrical stimulation as the main method,” Huntington explained. “We’ve tried stimulating specific nerves with lightning techniques and have already achieved good results.”
“However, the problem remains… how to maintain the patient’s vitality, or rather, the ability of the cells to grow.”
Old Bai nodded slightly and spoke up, “Based on the relationship between spiritual roots and nerves, we’ve redesigned Gu Chang’s neural network, but reconstructing the spiritual root within his body is a massive undertaking.”
“With our current scientific methods, we can’t guarantee the patient’s safety during the treatment process.”
The project team was divided into two parts.
One part focused on the research of spiritual root theory, led by Old Bai, with a group of mathematicians working to decipher human nerves, aiming to clarify the relationship between human nerves and spiritual roots.
This would help achieve the effect of creating spiritual roots.
With Gu Chang’s research as a foundation, this wasn’t too difficult.
The other part, consisting of Huntington and his colleagues in medicine and pharmacy, was responsible for realizing the creation of spiritual roots.
This was much more challenging.
If it were a minor nerve issue, it wouldn’t be a big problem, but the nerves related to spiritual roots were too numerous and complex, almost akin to recreating a human being.
“Will we still need spiritual medicines?”
“For spiritual medicines, we have a new idea,” Teacher Tian suddenly said.
“Hmm?”
“Currently, the spiritual medicines cultivated successfully at the nursing home are all by chance, and the success rate is too low… we suspect it’s due to the wrong varieties.”
“Varieties?”
“According to your theory, if there’s no spiritual energy, the particles of spiritual materials will degrade… then the vegetation here has probably long since adapted to an environment without spiritual energy.”
Zheng Fa was momentarily taken aback, then quickly understood.
Regardless of the relationship between the modern world and the Xuanwei realm, the modern world had been devoid of spiritual energy for countless years.
Thus, most plants that thrived in a spiritual energy-rich environment had likely gone extinct.
“Teacher Tian, are you suggesting…”
“On one hand, we might need to find seeds of ancient plants to cultivate and experiment with. On the other hand, I was thinking… how about you research the genomes of various spiritual plants?”
With Huntington and others present, Teacher Tian was vague, but Zheng Fa immediately grasped the implication.
Teacher Tian’s idea was—if I don’t know what can be cultivated into a spiritual plant, why not let Zheng Fa look for it in the Jiushan realm?
This was something Zheng Fa hadn’t considered before.
Because the plants in the Xuanwei realm were vastly different from those in the modern world; the disparity was much greater than that of human anatomy.
Finding corresponding plants in the modern world was indeed quite difficult and unrealistic.
Thus, Zheng Fa typically worked on transferring modern technology to the Jiushan realm.
But Teacher Tian’s suggestion was straightforward—
While the modern world might not have corresponding plants, couldn’t we create one using gene editing?
Under the premise that the underlying principles are the same, this idea… might not be impossible!
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