At Li Dong’s words, the smile on Qi Yu’s face faded noticeably.
She was silent for two seconds, then said,
"She’s not in very good health."
"She took sick leave again a few days ago and is resting at home."
Li Dong was a bit surprised.
He thought for a moment...
This was the third time he’d heard of the old lady taking sick leave.
And less than three months had passed.
Li Dong asked,
"Qi Yu, what’s wrong with the old lady?"
"Is her health that bad?"
Qi Yu sighed.
"It’s a chronic issue."
"When she was young, she worked with her advisor on the synthesis and titration analysis of chiral ligands."
"Back then, there was no such thing as Level 3 protection or proper fume hoods."
"She was in the lab day in and day out, inhaling organic solvent vapors, getting covered in the dust from various transition metal salts and ligands."
"She did that for nearly ten years."
"By the time she left that research group, the seeds of her future health problems had already been sown."
Qi Yu paused.
"She was first hospitalized for chest tightness when she was forty. Then, at fifty-two, she had a heart attack and needed a stent."
"The hospital managed to save her in time during that heart attack, but the subsequent ischemia-reperfusion injury absolutely ravaged her myocardial cells."
"Now, she has a large patch of fibrotic scar tissue in her heart."
This was the first time Li Dong had heard that the old lady’s health was so poor.
Qi Yu continued.
"The proper medical term for her current condition is ’ischemic cardiomyopathy.’ You could also classify it as ’coronary heart disease with heart failure.’"
"It’s basically incurable."
"She has to rely on a lifetime of medication—beta-blockers, ACE inhibitors, diuretics, that whole class of drugs—just to keep it under control."
"On the days it’s under control, she can teach."
"But on the days it can’t be controlled..."
Qi Yu didn’t finish her sentence.
Li Dong didn’t press the issue.
He silently replayed what Qi Yu had just said in his mind.
’Ischemia-reperfusion injury.’
’Myocardial cells ravaged by an oxidative burst, leaving behind a large patch of fibrotic scar tissue.’
’Incurable, only manageable with medication.’
He’d just heard these exact terms in Professor Wu Kai’s office.
The single-atom iron nanozyme that Professor Wu Kai’s team was working on.
Theoretically, it could protect the myocardial cells during the oxidative burst, saving most of the tissue that would otherwise be destroyed.
’If the project succeeds and makes it to clinical application...’
’Could the professor’s ’one day at a time’ condition finally ease up a little?’
’She might not make a full recovery.’
’But the fibrotic scar tissue might stop spreading.’
Li Dong said nothing.
Qi Yu raised her head and glanced at him.
"I don’t know why I’m telling you all this."
"The old lady herself hates talking about her health."
"If she knew I’d rambled on to you like this, she’d scold me for being a blabbermouth."
Li Dong shook his head.
"Qi Yu, let me come with you to see the old lady."
Qi Yu was taken aback for a moment.
"Sure."
"Let’s go, then."
Li Dong naturally took the stack of books from her arms.
Qi Yu glanced at him.
Li Dong said with a smile,
"They’re heavy."
Qi Yu didn’t reply, just gave a small smile.
The two of them left the library together.
As they left the campus, Li Dong thought for a moment, then led them down the street by Yan University’s south gate, stopping at a fruit stand.
Behind the stand sat a girl who looked younger than twenty, her head lowered as she nibbled on a steamed bun.
Li Dong asked,
"Boss, how much are these apples?"
The girl looked up.
"Two fifty a pound."
Li Dong: ???
’Why does that sound so familiar?’
He remembered a time at a fruit stand outside Jiangcheng Seventh Middle School. A high school senior had been sitting there, staring at a Calculus problem. His call of "Boss" had startled her into blurting out "ln2," before she dazedly quoted a price...
"Two fifty a pound."
Li Dong smiled and shook his head.
’I wonder how Misha is doing now.’
Qi Yu, standing beside him, found it strange that he hadn’t moved for a while.
"Li Dong?"
Li Dong snapped out of it.
He gave a small smile.
"Oh, it’s nothing."
"Boss, give me four pounds of Red Fuji."
The girl deftly bagged and weighed the apples.
Li Dong paid and took the bag.
Qi Yu tilted her head and looked at him.
"Li Dong, what were you thinking about just now?"
Li Dong shook his head.
"It was nothing."
"I was just thinking of a high school classmate."
Qi Yu said, "Oh."
She didn’t press further.
The two of them left the campus and walked east along the street outside Yan University’s south gate for about fifteen minutes.
Qi Yu led the way.
"The old lady’s place is just ahead."
"It’s an old apartment Yan University assigned to her back in the nineties."
As they entered the building and started up the stairs, Qi Yu added casually,
"The old lady lives alone."
"Never married, no kids."
Li Dong hummed in acknowledgment.
He knew a little about the circumstances of researchers from the professor’s generation.
In the late fifties and early sixties, a significant number of people from that generation never married.
It’s not that they didn’t want to.
They truly didn’t have the time.
People of that generation would join classified projects and disappear for years at a time, unable to see their families or even send letters home.
Some people could endure it.
The ones who couldn’t, they closed that door on their own.
They chose not to marry, so as not to hold anyone else back.
In his heart, Li Dong held deep respect for that generation of elders.
Qi Yu reached the third floor.
She took a set of keys from her shoulder bag and unlocked the door on the far right.
An elderly woman’s voice came from inside the apartment.
"Oh, Xiaoyu."
"Didn’t you have a class this afternoon?"
"Why have you come again? You shouldn’t, you know."

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