It was Thursday again.

That morning, Yan Feifan went to the neurosurgery department as usual to do rounds with Mr. Lo, checking on the patients' recovery. During the rounds, he was occasionally hit with surprise questions.

Afterward, he followed Mr. Lo back to his office to discuss the surgical plans for several patients.

At noon, Lo Jun, Wang Chuan, and Yan Feifan gathered in the director's office of the plastic surgery center to share a takeout lunch.

As they ate, they discussed the specifics of how to move forward with the in-vivo nerve cultivation research project.

"This eight million in funding seems substantial, but the entire process for a single volunteer—from dissecting a specific nerve for in-vivo cultivation, to the nerve grafting surgery, and finally to recovering enough for a comparative study—is expected to take between six months and a year."

Lo Jun continued his analysis, "No matter how much we try to save, the cost for each volunteer won't be less than one hundred thousand."

"In other words, we can recruit fifty to sixty volunteers at most—people with nerve problems in various parts of their bodies."

Yan Feifan suggested, "Mr. Lo, since the number of volunteers is limited, why don't we set some restrictions to ensure we have a sufficient sample size for comparison?"

"For example, what if we only recruit volunteers with symptoms related to arm nerves, facial nerves, and the like?"

Logically, patients with arm and leg nerve damage were the most suitable for this research project.

Yan Feifan's specific mention of patients with facial nerve damage was undoubtedly driven by a personal motive: to prepare for Yanyan's future surgery.

"Agreed!"

Lo Jun consented readily.

He picked up a piece of fish with his chopsticks, ate it, and continued, "Next is the project team's personnel."

Lo Jun looked at Wang Chuan and Yan Feifan and said, "The two of you can't possibly focus all your energy on this project."

"I'll have my people take charge of the day-to-day management of the project, the volunteers, work progress, and so on."

"Mr. Wang, you should also assign an assistant or a student to the project team. It'll make future communication and coordination easier."

Lo Jun brought this up because he and Wang Chuan were the two official project leaders for the research grant application.

Having a project worth nearly ten million staffed entirely by his own people for its daily operations wouldn't look good.

Lo Jun was trying to avoid any appearance of favoritism.

But Wang Chuan thought for a moment and couldn't come up with a suitable candidate.

For the past few years, with his energy drained by his daughter's situation, he had been shirking whatever he could, aside from his primary duties as a doctor and his administrative work as a department head. This included things like teaching and mentoring young doctors.

When other department heads went out, they were always surrounded by a large entourage of students, interns, and young doctors.

Some had as many as ten or twenty, while others had at least seven or eight.

In all these years, Wang Chuan had only taken on two students: Tang Zheng and Yan Feifan.

And now, that fellow Tang Zheng had even submitted his resignation.

'You never know how few people you have until you need them.'

Wang Chuan looked at Yan Feifan and said, "I don't have any suitable candidates on my end. If you know any classmates or friends you think are good and who want to build a career in plastic surgery, you could invite them."

Well...

Because Yan Feifan had skipped so many grades, and on top of that had a proud and aloof personality, he had many classmates, but his relationships with them were all superficial.

As for friends, he had pitifully few.

He suddenly thought of Lin Qian, with whom he had forged a bond through shared hardship.

As a chief resident, she should be up for a promotion to attending physician this year.

'I wonder if Lin Qian has been assigned to a permanent department yet?'

In many hospitals, medical graduates with a doctorate could be promoted to attending physician after just one year of work.

But in a large, top-tier hospital like the Affiliated Hospital, they had to dutifully complete three years of rotational training as a resident.

To be promoted to attending physician, besides passing the hospital's evaluations, there was another condition: a department had to be willing to accept you.

If a resident worked at the Affiliated Hospital for five years and still wasn't accepted by any department, they would have no choice but to pack their bags and leave.

Therefore, the promotion from resident to attending was a crucial hurdle at the Affiliated Hospital.

It determined the future career path of a resident physician.

"Mr. Wang, I'll contact her and see what she thinks."

After Yan Feifan replied, he listened as Lo Jun and Wang Chuan went on to discuss other specific details about the research project.

Since they had surgery scheduled for the afternoon, the three of them finished their lunch and parted ways at twelve-forty.

At one-twenty in the afternoon, Yan Feifan served as a surgical assistant, helping Mr. Lo complete a resection of a lumbar nerve-ending tumor.

Around seven in the evening, Yan Feifan, having cleaned up, left the surgical area and was surprised to find Officer Zheng Libin waiting for him.

"Mr. Yan, I'm here mainly to verify some details about last night's case, where Liu Xia cut off the suspect's 'family jewels'."

After stating his purpose, Zheng Libin followed Yan Feifan into a doctors' lounge.

Once they were seated, Yan Feifan asked, feigning curiosity, "Wasn't it self-defense? You have the surveillance footage, so why do you still need to investigate?"

Zheng Libin chuckled. "After all, it's a serious case involving rape, and the two of them used to be a couple. We can't be careless."

"A thorough investigation is still necessary."

He took a voice recorder out of his briefcase, turned it on, and placed it on the table in front of Yan Feifan.

"Mr. Yan, according to Liu Xia's statement, she contacted you after calling 110 and 120?"

Yan Feifan grunted in acknowledgment. "She called me in a panic, asking what she should do."

"So I instructed her on how to stop the bleeding, how to preserve the severed limb..."

After Yan Feifan finished his account, Zheng Libin asked a few follow-up questions about the details, then inquired, "What do you know about Liu Xia and her ex-boyfriend?"

Yan Feifan recalled for a moment and said, "I know that Liu Xia once cared a lot about that boyfriend. She even had scar removal surgery for him."

"It was only later that I happened to hear they broke up."

He added, "Liu Xia and I got to know each other through three surgeries—one for her employee, one for herself, and one for a friend of hers. We're somewhat familiar, I guess, but I really don't know much about her personal relationships."

"Mr. Yan, we're aware of that."

Zheng Libin put away the voice recorder and continued, "From the surveillance footage, the suspect entered the room and immediately started getting handsy with Liu Xia, who kept trying to dodge him."

"Eventually, the suspect's actions became much more aggressive..."

"However, the suspect claims that Liu Xia gave him a verbal signal last night and that they used to play this kind of role-playing game before."

"He insists he was totally set up this time."

Yan Feifan let out a dry laugh, his tone dripping with sarcasm. "When you're together, you can play whatever games you want."

"But they're broken up. How could they still be playing a game like that?"

"Has his brain rusted over or something?"

Zheng Libin also chuckled. "Some people have an overinflated sense of self-worth, and when hormones take over, they just throw caution to the wind."

He then changed the subject. "About that Xue Jisheng case, the special task force tracked down over a billion in assets he had transferred and hidden around the world. So we managed to recover some of the losses for the country and the investors..."

After parting with Zheng Libin, Yan Feifan went to Qin Ying's teaching and research office in the emergency department and met up with Yu Suye, who was waiting for him.

"Did your mom get home safely?"

Yu Suye hummed in response and said, "My mom went back to Jingcheng with that guy, Lu Yao."

"He even went home with my mom and told my grandfather about the so-called 'one-year pact'."

"He said he wants to win his competition with you fair and square, and he asked my grandfather not to interfere with my choice."

Yu Suye studied Yan Feifan's cool expression and asked cautiously, "Feifan, are you angry?"

Yan Feifan shook his head. "I'm not angry. This is good news."

"That Lu Yao guy..."

He thought for a moment before describing him. "He's kind of endearing, but also a bit of a fool..."