I Am Diagnosed as a Medical Titan

Chapter 15: Chapter 15: This Competition Is a Battle of Gods

Jiang He was organizing his materials.

Chen Hao was poring over *Surgery*.

Half an hour later, he ran into Lu Xiaolin.

”...Jiang He?” Lu Xiaolin asked in surprise. ”What a coincidence. You’re here too?”

”I’m studying,” Jiang He said. ”The library’s too crowded, so it’s quieter here. What about you, Senior? Are you here to run experiments this late?”

”Don’t ask.”

Lu Xiaolin sighed, took off his glasses, and rubbed the bridge of his nose. ”After hearing your suggestion about the SMAD4 gene deletion yesterday, I was so excited I was up half the night. First thing this morning, I went to the pathology department at Affiliated Hospital No. 1 and checked out all the pancreatic cancer paraffin sections from a few years ago.”

He patted the blue box in his hand. ”I was hoping to make some progress today, but I hit a wall.”

Jiang He’s expression was placid. ”Not enough specificity?”

Lu Xiaolin froze. He put his glasses back on and gave a wry smile. ”Incredible. Did you see this coming? That’s right. The marker gets conflated with inflammation, making them impossible to distinguish. I’ve looked at dozens of slides, and they’re all full of confounding variables.”

Jiang He nodded.

’As expected.’

’A classic problem from ’08.’

’They put too much faith in the specificity of molecular markers and ignored the fundamentals of pathological morphology.’

’If you only look at specificity, you can’t tell the difference between the two, even with future technology.’

Jiang He said, ”It’s true that it gets confounded by inflammatory cells. There’s no way around it.”

”Yeah, it’s a dead end.” Lu Xiaolin sounded dejected.

Jiang He thought for a moment, then stood up and walked over to the row of glass specimen cabinets.

He pointed to a normal pancreatic anatomical specimen.

”Senior, come take a look at this.”

Lu Xiaolin didn’t understand why, but he walked over anyway.

”Look at this pancreatic duct. How would the cells be arranged under a microscope?”

”A single layer of columnar epithelium, neatly arranged,” Lu Xiaolin replied readily.

”And if it’s inflamed?”

”The cells swell and would show atypia, but... the overall structure would still be intact.”

”Exactly. The structure.”

Jiang He turned to look at Lu Xiaolin. ”Since the antibody can’t distinguish the chemical composition, then use your eyes to look at the physical structure.”

”A protein like MUC1 is only expressed at the apex of the cell, even in inflammatory cells. That’s called polarity.”

”However, if it’s cancerous...” Jiang He’s pace slowed. ”Even with carcinoma in situ, this polarity will disappear.”

Something flickered in Lu Xiaolin’s eyes.

Jiang He continued, ”If the MUC1 staining looks like a ring that envelops the entire cell membrane, that indicates a reversal of polarity.”

”No matter how severe the inflammation is, the polarity of benign cells is never disrupted.”

”No new reagents, no sequencing needed.” Jiang He smiled. ”Senior, when you go back to look at the slides, try changing your point of focus.”

The specimen room fell silent for a few seconds.

Lu Xiaolin stared at the specimen, his brow furrowed, muttering to himself, ”Polarity reversal... circumferential staining...”

Suddenly, he slapped his thigh.

”Fucking brilliant!”

He snatched the blue box off the table, the exhaustion in his eyes vanishing completely. ”How did I not think of that? Everyone in academia is so focused on specific expression these days that we’ve forgotten the most basic morphology!”

”Thanks, man!” Lu Xiaolin turned to rush out. ”I’m heading back to the lab right now. I have to re-examine those few slides tonight!”

He rushed to the door, then stopped in his tracks.

Feeling like it was rude to just leave, he took half a step back, braced himself against the doorframe, and said, ”Oh, by the way.”

”Yes?”

”You mentioned last time you wanted to join Boss Yang’s group?”

”I did.”

”In that case, you’ll really have to go all out for this thinking competition,” Lu Xiaolin said. ”I just heard that this year’s competition has changed.”

Chen Hao, who had been a silent fixture in the background for a while, finally couldn’t help but chime in, ”Changed how?”

”It used to be just an internal school event for fun, but not this year,” Lu Xiaolin explained. ”The top three will represent the university at the South China Region Thinking and Skills Invitational. Winning there gets you bonus points for a graduate program recommendation.”

He looked at Jiang He. ”As far as I know, several of the fifth-year seniors interning at Affiliated Hospital No. 1 have specifically taken leave to come back for the competition.”

Chen Hao gasped. ”Fifth-years are coming too?”

”That’s right.” Lu Xiaolin’s expression turned serious. ”Jiang He, I know you’re strong on theory and quick-witted, but with those old hands in the ring, you’ll still have to put in the effort.”

With that, he shook the blue box in his hand. ”Alright, I really have to go. If you can actually make it to the interview round, I’ll definitely put in a good word for you with Boss Yang. See you around!”

Lu Xiaolin left.

But Chen Hao clearly couldn’t settle down.

”Unbelievable...” He slammed *Surgery* down on the table. ”What’s the point of even trying? Fifth-years coming back to stomp on newbies? Isn’t that just bullying?”

He turned to look at Jiang He. ”Old Jiang, you heard what our senior said. Those guys have been in the trenches. All that theory you know? They’ve already practiced it on actual patients!”

Jiang He, however, didn’t seem concerned. He reopened his materials. ”There’s nothing to worry about. The competition tests standard protocols. As long as your fundamentals are solid, it doesn’t matter if you’re a third-year or a fifth-year.”

”You’re unbelievably calm...”

Chen Hao sighed as he looked at Jiang He’s unruffled expression. ”I guess you’re right. We were just going to be fillers anyway. Just passing the preliminaries would be a win for us.”

As he spoke, he started packing his bag, then added casually as if he just remembered something, ”Besides, nobody expects you to take first place. Everyone will be happy enough if you just make it past the first round.”

The pen in Jiang He’s hand stopped moving.

He looked up, a subtle expression in his eyes. ”’Everyone’... as in?”

”Oh, the whole class,” Chen Hao said, as if it were obvious.

Jiang He frowned slightly. ”How does the whole class know I’m entering the competition?”

”I told them,” Chen Hao said. ”And so did Zijian and Old Wang. The three of us were just so excited last night, we mentioned it in the class group chat. You didn’t see it?”

Jiang He: ”...”

”What’s wrong?” Seeing Jiang He’s silence, Chen Hao thought he was touched and grinned. ”Don’t worry, the class president and the Youth League secretary have already spoken up. They said as long as you pass the prelims, you’ll be the lone champion of the third-years, the ’hope of the whole village.’ When that happens, we’ll use class funds to throw a celebration party for you.”

Chen Hao clapped Jiang He on the shoulder. ”Surprised? Didn’t see that coming, did you? Everyone’s waiting to cheer you on!”

Jiang He was speechless.

Even for a medical titan who had been reborn, this moment brought a profound sense of powerlessness.

”Chen Hao,” Jiang He sighed.

”Huh?”

”Next time... ask for my opinion before you go announcing it to everyone.”

”Why? It’s not a big deal, is it?”

”Success depends on secrecy; failure results from leaks. Get it?”

”But I can’t keep it to myself.”

Jiang He: ”...”

’Forget it. There’s no point arguing with my childish roommate.’

’Looks like it’ll be hard to keep a low profile during this competition.’