Sun Xiang was truly pulling out all the stops for Li Dong’s biology project.
For the past few days, he had been constantly calling his mentor at Zhejiang University, but he could never get through.
Sun Xiang even started to wonder, ’Did my mentor blacklist me, his good-for-nothing disciple, long ago?’
Finally, on Thursday afternoon, the call connected.
"Hello? Who is this?"
The voice on the other end sounded a bit tired, and the faint whirring of a laboratory centrifuge could be heard in the background.
Sun Xiang instinctively straightened his posture.
"Pro... Professor, it’s me, Sun Xiang."
The other end was silent for a few seconds before a voice replied.
"...Oh, Sun Xiang."
Sun Xiang could tell from his mentor’s tone that he wasn’t exactly welcome, but he pressed on anyway.
"Professor, I have a student who wants to take on a biology project."
"Because we really don’t have the right conditions here in Jiangcheng, I was hoping... hoping to borrow our lab’s platform."
"And also... a clean bench, a high-speed refrigerated centrifuge, a PCR machine, and a library construction platform for high-throughput sequencing..."
Sun Xiang blurted it all out, afraid that if he spoke too slowly, the other person would hang up.
A moment later, the person on the other end seemed stunned by what he’d said.
"Sun Xiang! Has teaching high school turned your brain to mush?"
"Do you have any idea how long the line is for my master’s students to use the high-throughput sequencer? They’re booked until next month!"
"And the sterile tissue culture room is so packed there isn’t even room to stand! And you want me to free up all this equipment for a high school student to write a paper?"
During the two minutes his professor was roaring at him, Sun Xiang didn’t dare say a single word.
Normally, he would have given up by now.
But the words Li Dong had said in the office that day kept replaying in his mind—
"Someone has to do it."
Sun Xiang summoned the greatest courage of his life and interrupted his mentor.
"Professor, please hear me out!"
"He wants to work on the Alpine Willow Chrysanthemum that Mendel himself once used! He wants to use transcriptome and resequencing analysis to locate and clone the homologous candidate genes that regulate its apomixis, and then knock them out using CRISPR/Cas9!"
"He wants to restore sexual reproduction in the Alpine Willow Chrysanthemum, to perfectly replicate Mendel’s 3:1 segregation ratio, and to make up for Mendel’s regret..."
As his words faded, the other end of the line fell silent again.
For anyone who studies biology, the moment they step into the hall of genetics, they can’t avoid the image of that figure planting peas in a monastery garden.
This wasn’t some high school kid’s whim; this was the ultimate form of scientific romanticism!
After a long while, a sigh came from the other end of the line.
"This month, have that kid put together a complete research proposal for me. It needs to include a detailed project plan, a list of required reagents and consumables, and the overall strategy for rapid tissue culture propagation!"
"I happen to have an opening next month. Tell him to bring the proposal to Zhejiang University and find me."
Sun Xiang said hurriedly.
"Thank you! Thank you, Professor! Thank you so much!"
"Sigh..." His mentor sighed again before hanging up.
"I told you to stay and continue your research back then, but you just wouldn’t listen."
"Going on about returning home for arranged dates, about how a teaching career is stable... Now look at your student, and then look at you!"
His voice was thick with disappointment at unfulfilled potential.
"BEEP—BEEP—BEEP—"
The call disconnected.
「Jiangcheng Sixth Middle School, Honors Class Teachers’ Office.」
Sun Xiang called Li Dong over.
"Li Dong, I managed to get you a chance to meet with my mentor."
"Within the next month, I need you to sort out the detailed plan and preparations for your project."
"My mentor has some free time next month, so you’ll take your research proposal to Zhejiang University and meet with him then."
Li Dong heard this and was just about to thank him when Sun Xiang held up a hand to stop him.
"Don’t celebrate just yet. I need to be upfront with you about something."
"CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing in plants isn’t like doing a test paper where you get results in an instant."
"From vector construction and Agrobacterium-mediated transformation to callus induction, seedling differentiation, positive line screening, and final phenotype verification... it’s an extremely long and grueling process."
"Even with a model plant like Arabidopsis thaliana, which has been thoroughly studied by the academic world, it takes two to three months at the very least to get verifiable T1 edited seedlings."
"But the Alpine Willow Chrysanthemum you want to work on is a non-model perennial herb from the Asteraceae family."
"The academic world has no established transformation system for this thing. The callus induction and differentiation cycles are long, and the transformation efficiency is low."
"Just getting a verifiable homozygous edited line will take at least half a year!"
This time, Sun Xiang looked at Li Dong, needing a definitive answer from him.
"This means that even with my mentor’s platform to support you, you’ll likely be working on this project all the way into university. Can you afford that kind of time commitment?"
Li Dong listened and nodded.
"Teacher Sun, I can afford it. No matter how long it takes, I have to see this through with my own hands."
"Good. Since you have that level of commitment, let me draw another red line for you."
"If you really get into the lab, all the core experimental procedures—from DNA extraction, vector construction, and tissue culture infection to the subsequent PCR identification—must be performed by you yourself!"
Sun Xiang explained.
"Nowadays, a lot of so-called ’research’ done by high school students is just them paying commercial agencies or graduate students to do the work for them."
"If you’re just trying to publish in some junk journals, you might get away with it."
"But the review process for top international journals is extremely strict. If a reviewer even suspects your data was fabricated by someone else, not only will you be rejected outright..."
"...your academic credibility for the rest of your life will be ruined. No top-tier university will ever accept someone with a record of academic dishonesty. Do you understand?!"
Li Dong listened and nodded.
"Don’t worry, Teacher Sun. I never planned on having anyone else do it for me anyway."
’Are you kidding? If I got someone else to do it, not only would I not be able to trust them, but what if...’
’I’m still a little worried that those big shots can see what I’m doing out here.’
"What do you mean, ’no problem’?!"
Suddenly, a voice came from behind him.
Elder Chen walked over, his face dark.
In truth, ever since Li Dong had entered the office, he had been pretending to drink tea, but his ears had been working overtime, eavesdropping on their entire conversation.
"You’re running off to Zhejiang University next month to discuss a biology project? Then let me ask you, what about your physics project for the Qiu Prize on the Hysteresis Loop? Are you still doing it or not?"
"Do you really think the Qiu Prize is child’s play?"
Seeing the little old man was angry, Li Dong quickly put on an appeasing smile.
"Teacher Chen, please don’t be angry. Didn’t Teacher Sun just say this project has a long timeline?"
"Once I finish writing the biology research proposal this month and settle on a schedule with them, I’ll dedicate the remaining five months entirely to physics. I guarantee I’ll get the project and the paper done!"
Elder Chen was so incensed by his words that he laughed.
’Five months? This kid is too arrogant!’
’Other people preparing for the Qiu Prize start choosing their topic, building their model, and writing their paper a year in advance!’
’And now you’re telling me you plan to complete the entire physics process in just five months, while also being distracted setting up a biology project? You’re unbelievably arrogant!’
Elder Chen was about to lay into Li Dong for his arrogance, but as the words reached his lips, he hesitated. ’This kid is a little... unnatural...’
’Maybe he really can finish the physics project in five months?’
So, he said with a stern face.
"Fine! Since you said you’ll dedicate the rest of the time to physics, then you won’t be lazing around this month either! If you can’t produce a preliminary model for the physics project for me within this month, you’re not going anywhere!"
In reality, even if Li Dong didn’t finish, he would have let him go anyway.
After all, borrowing a university’s facilities naturally depended on the professor’s schedule.
If Li Dong could really produce results and publish in a top-tier journal with this biology project, as Sun Xiang had described, that would carry far more weight than a Qiu Prize medal.
Although Elder Chen believed in his heart that biology was inferior to physics, he would never stand in a student’s way.
’However, since you’ve made such a bold claim, kid, don’t blame me for being ruthless.’
Watching Elder Chen turn and walk away, Li Dong breathed a sigh of relief.
But what he didn’t know was that Elder Chen had already decided in his heart not to treat him like a human being for the next thirty days.
’Eat? Go to the bathroom? Take a nap? In your dreams...’

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