Xia Yinuo and Liu Yan arrived at Dalian Zhoushuizi International Airport on the night of the 11th. After making their way to the hotel and checking in, the two fellow students settled into a standard twin room. Once they were unpacked, Xia Yinuo called her parents to let them know she had arrived safely, and then she called Liang Juejun. Liang Juejun reminded her to take good care of herself. With Liu Yan right there, Xia Yinuo didn't say much else.
The conference officially began on the 12th. The theme was "Development, Transformation, and Industrialization." There were five thematic forums, including Global Stem Cell Outlook, Progress in Stem Cell Research, Basic Research and New Technologies in Regenerative Medicine, Clinical Translation of Regenerative Therapy, and Young Scientist Research. Following the opening ceremony, reports were held in five breakout sessions. What followed was a nearly day-long bombardment of presentations, with only simple boxed lunches and tea breaks in between. By evening, the organizers held a welcome dinner and art performance. Both of them were quite exhausted and lacked the energy for it, so they agreed to grab a quick bite and head back to the hotel.
After a tiring day, they turned on the TV, drank some water, and sat down to chat. Xia Yinuo asked Liu Yan how she felt.
Liu Yan answered honestly, "I didn't expect an outside conference to be like this. It's so different from our weekly lab meetings."
Xia Yinuo smiled. "Indeed. These so-called international conferences are macroscopic, cutting-edge, yet also condensed and generalized. Their latest research results, patents, and projects represent the newest scientific progress and market trends in the fields of regenerative medicine and stem cells. Our usual lab meetings, however, focus on the specific projects at hand. We discuss things in detail, right down to every hypothesis and experimental design. It’s like Professor Tang always tells us: 'Think big, do small.' I believe this is what he hopes we'll learn from being here."
Liu Yan nodded, and Xia Yinuo continued, "As for the exhibition later, it's more about building a platform for companies and research units to cooperate, showcase themselves, and exchange ideas freely to promote business partnerships. So, as students, we really only need to get a general idea of things and treat it as a way to broaden our horizons."
"Understood! Thank you for the guidance, Senior Xia!" Liu Yan said earnestly. Seeing her serious expression, Xia Yinuo couldn't help but laugh.
"Why so solemn? It's just the two of us here. The lab is like a big family; we're all brothers and sisters."
Liu Yan rubbed her head, looking a bit sheepish. "Hehe, I know."
Xia Yinuo patted her own shoulders to loosen them up. "This is a tradition in our lab. When I was a newcomer like you, I was well-looked after by my seniors. Now that they've all graduated, I still feel quite nostalgic when I think back on those years."
"Senior, how many juniors have you mentored?"
"Undergraduates coming in for small innovation projects or graduation designs, graduate students doing lab rotations, and some doctors coming from hospitals for advanced training... I can't really remember them all. But in terms of being Professor Tang's formal disciples, Ke Dinghao was the first, and you are the second."
"Wow, then I'm truly honored."
"We don't stand on ceremony in private. You can tell just by looking at Senior Ke. So, there's no need to be constrained."
Liu Yan happily agreed.
As they were joking around, Xia Yinuo’s phone rang. Liu Yan signaled that she was going to shower first, and Xia Yinuo walked over to the window to answer.
"How was your day? Is the weather in Dalian cold?" Liang Juejun asked.
Xia Yinuo’s voice turned soft and sweet as she explained that she had spent the whole day listening to reports—nothing special. She mentioned there was a social dinner in the evening, but she had just grabbed a bite and come back to watch TV in the hotel. As for the weather, it was colder than City C.
Liang Juejun laughed on the other end and asked if it was inconvenient for her to talk.
Xia Yinuo glanced at the bathroom. "No, my junior is in the shower."
"Oh, in the shower," Liang Juejun repeated.
Xia Yinuo teased, "What, are you jealous?"
"I am not."
Xia Yinuo smiled to herself, thinking, *If you say so.*
"What are you doing?" Xia Yinuo asked.
"Just finished work. I'm about to head home."
Xia Yinuo checked her watch; it was nearly seven o'clock. She urged Liang Juejun to go eat first.
Before going to sleep, Liang Juejun received a pitiful-looking emoji from Xia Yinuo, followed by a message: *"From tonight until tomorrow morning, I expect to miss you slightly. By tomorrow afternoon, the longing is predicted to be continuous. Due to the influence of an extended low-mood front, the day after tomorrow will see heavy to torrential longing. My mood will drop by five degrees accordingly. This weather pattern is expected to persist until the moment I see you."*
Liang Juejun replied with four words: *"You aren't allowed to get sick."*
Liu Yan was undoubtedly a sensible and obedient junior. Throughout the few days of the conference, she behaved perfectly, not wandering off or getting restless like some young people who wanted to flee after sitting for only a short while. Even during the tedious reports, she remained seated.
On the third day, Xia Yinuo and Liu Yan went to visit the exhibition area. It was massive, divided into sections for instruments and equipment, stem cell enterprises and technology, biomedical materials, drug R&D, anti-aging and beauty applications, outsourced production and services, media and professional publishers, and more.
"Xia Yinuo! It really is you!"
The man in the suit standing before her looked very familiar. Xia Yinuo was certain he was a classmate from her university days, but she couldn't recall his name immediately.
The man said intimately, "Hey, talk about important people having short memories! Do you still remember me? False Teeth?"
Only then did it click for Xia Yinuo. "You're... Jiang Yang?!"
Jiang Yang and Xia Yinuo had been in the same year but different classes. Back then, Jiang Yang didn't talk much; he was somewhat aloof and proud, always clutching thick textbooks and sitting in the front row—the quintessential top student in everyone's eyes. The students called him "False Teeth" because their counselor at the time had a thick accent and a poor grasp of Mandarin; every time he called Jiang Yang's name, it sounded exactly like "False Teeth" (Jia Ya). Jiang Yang hadn't been bothered by it, and eventually, everyone almost forgot his real name. Over those five years, Xia Yinuo and Jiang Yang had rarely crossed paths. The awkward youth of the past had changed significantly; he had put on quite a bit of weight, his hair was spiked up with gel, and his face was plastered with a practiced smile.
"Hehe, that's right! That's me!"
"I'm sorry, I didn't recognize you for a moment. Hello, Jiang Yang." Xia Yinuo nodded with a polite smile.
"Haha! No need to be so formal! A beauty can call me whatever she likes."
"Heh." Xia Yinuo gave a slightly awkward smile, unsure of what to say.
"I heard you're still at C University for your PhD?"
"Yes, I graduate next year."
"Are you here for the conference?"
"Yes. This is my junior, Liu Yan; she came with me."
"Hello," Liu Yan greeted him politely.
Jiang Yang hurriedly replied, "Hello, hello! Ah, being a student is still the best. Not like us pharmaceutical reps—running around all year and not necessarily making much money."
Hearing this, Xia Yinuo looked up at the display board behind him. It turned out Jiang Yang worked for a pharmaceutical company with a decent reputation in the industry.
Xia Yinuo said modestly, "Not at all, working is also quite good."
Jiang Yang rubbed his hands together, a sly smile on his face. "I'll be handling the business in City C soon. Hey, to be honest, I was actually looking for you!"
"Looking for me?" Xia Yinuo was puzzled.
"Exactly," Jiang Yang leaned closer to Xia Yinuo and lowered his voice. "I heard your mother is at the C University Affiliated Hospital. I was wondering if we could... open up some channels..."
"I never get involved in those matters." Xia Yinuo felt awkward and stepped back to put some distance between herself and Jiang Yang, glancing at Liu Yan. Clearly, she didn't want too many people knowing about her family affairs.
Jiang Yang acted as if it were no big deal. "Hey, don't be so quick to refuse. You're a smart person; I'm sure you understand how things work between medical reps and doctors."
Xia Yinuo felt a surge of annoyance. Jiang Yang, who had a medical background himself, was not only disrespecting the medical profession but also baselessly slandering her mother. This was something Xia Yinuo could not tolerate.
"Jiang Yang, I think you've got it wrong. Not all doctors are like what you're describing. Besides, my mother is just an ordinary doctor; she doesn't have that kind of power. Seeing patients and teaching students is her daily work. As for the things you mentioned, I can answer for her: she has absolutely no interest in them, nor does she have the time."
Jiang Yang maintained his oily smile. "I get it! I totally get it! How about this—I'll give you my business card. If anything comes up, remember to call me. When the exhibition ends later, let me treat you to dinner. We haven't seen each other in years; let's catch up! Hey, junior, you come along too!"
Xia Yinuo took the card and said impassively, "No thank you. We have to head back to City C tonight."
Jiang Yang could only say sheepishly, "Oh, well, never mind then. We'll have a chance to meet again in City C."
"Goodbye," Xia Yinuo said.
With that, she pulled Liu Yan away and walked quickly toward the rest area.
As they sat down, Liu Yan noticed Xia Yinuo’s silence and asked cautiously, "Senior Xia, that man was way out of line. Don't take it to heart."
Xia Yinuo sighed and gave a bitter smile. "He wasn't like that in university. Back then, he was devoted to his studies, proud and aloof, and didn't care for other matters. I never expected that in just a few short years, he would turn into... that. I don't know how to describe it... so mercenary."
Liu Yan comforted her, "Maybe he was forced into it by the pressures of work."
Gu Yizhi was sitting in the rest area when her assistant, Xiao Ge, waved to her from a distance. Gu Yizhi gathered her things and headed toward the exit. She was carrying too much, and a folder slipped out, falling to the floor. Just as she was about to bend down to pick it up, a girl sitting in the aisle seat of the front row reached down and picked up the folder that had landed by her feet, handing it back to Gu Yizhi.
Gu Yizhi was about to say thank you when she realized the girl wasn't even looking at her. Instead, the girl was speaking seriously to the other girl in the next seat. "There are too many people in this world who bow for five pecks of rice. We must both remember never to lose our original selves for the sake of petty profits, and never to become the kind of person we once hated."
The young girl was elegant and beautiful with an outstanding temperament, and the way she solemnly delivered such a grand principle was rather interesting. Gu Yizhi lowered her head slightly and said thank you, but the girl was already busy twisting the cap off a bottle of water. She gave a casual "you're welcome," her eyes never once focusing on Gu Yizhi.
Gu Yizhi felt a bit slighted. It wasn't as if she was so invisible that the girl couldn't even spare her a proper glance; after all, she was a young woman herself. Subconsciously, she glanced at the conference badge hanging from the girl's neck.
*Mm, Xia Yinuo.*
Xiao Ge had already come over to meet her. "Sister Gu!"
Gu Yizhi snapped back to attention. "Is all the information collected?"
Xiao Ge replied, "It's all organized. I was just about to show it to you."
Gu Yizhi turned back to look at the vast exhibition hall and smiled. "No rush. We'll talk at the hotel. Remember, next year, our AM Company will have a presence in the exhibition area of the 7th Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Conference."
***
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