Hecheng National Research Center for Microscopic Matter Science.
Wang Shen had just hung up the phone. He set it down on his desk and leaned back in his chair.
Academician Xie Yi, seated on the sofa opposite him, asked curiously.
"Director Wang."
"What’s wrong?"
"You have a look on your face like you don’t know whether to laugh or cry."
Wang Shen sighed.
"It’s Old Wu."
"He wants us to go over and collaborate on a project."
Xie Yi asked, a little puzzled.
"What project?"
"That thing we lost out on last time and couldn’t complain about."
Xie Yi’s eyebrows shot up.
"That single-atom iron nanozyme?"
"But they’ve already patented that project."
"And now they’re coming to us for a collaboration?"
Wang Shen nodded.
"The second generation."
"They’ve upgraded the first generation."
Wang Shen continued.
"This second-generation version isn’t just some minor tweak."
"They’ve completely replaced the delivery framework."
"I don’t have the detailed proposal, but Old Wu gave me the gist of it over the phone."
"PEG-lipids attached to the Fe-N? sites, plus a myocardial-targeting peptide, three-stage retention, while simultaneously clearing ROS and inhibiting the fibrosis pathway."
"Old Wu himself couldn’t even explain it all over the phone."
Xie Yi set down her teacup.
"Can they actually pull off that approach? It sounds a bit audacious."
Wang Shen shook his head with a wry smile.
"I thought so too, but when I heard the name of the project lead, it suddenly seemed reasonable."
Xie Yi voiced an "Oh?" then asked.
"Who is it?"
"Li Dong. Professor Li."
Xie Yi was silent for a few seconds, then she smiled as well.
"In that case, it’s actually conservative, compared to his other exploits."
"So, when are we going over?"
"Tomorrow."
"Alright."
Xie Yi stood up.
"I’ll have our institute clear out the synchrotron beamtime for the myocardial-targeting delivery portion."
"Just in case we need it and the time isn’t available."
Wang Shen gave Xie Yi a strange look.
"Are you that certain we’ll definitely collaborate?"
Xie Yi glanced back at him.
"Director Wang."
"I already missed out once. I don’t want to miss out a second time."
Wang Shen broke into a smile.
「The next day, Yan University College of Chemistry.」
Wu Kai was waiting from a distance at the entrance of the School of Chemistry building.
When he saw Wang Shen and Xie Yi getting out of the car, he immediately went up to greet them.
"Director Wang, Academician Xie, welcome, welcome!"
Wu Kai was feeling incredibly smug.
To be honest, in their field, Hecheng Microscale was at the absolute top among the few influential institutions in the country.
In the past, he was always the one running to Hecheng, practically begging them for a collaboration.
This time, all it took was one phone call, and they came flying over.
Still savoring the moment, he gestured to the person standing beside him and made the introduction.
"This is Professor Li Dong."
Wang Shen shook Li Dong’s hand.
"Professor Li, we really should have met much sooner."
"Back when Sister Zhang recommended you to us..."
Wang Shen said with regret.
"Ah, if only I had agreed back then."
"Old Wu wouldn’t have gotten such a lucky break."
Wu Kai, standing nearby, was immediately displeased.
"Hey, what kind of talk is that?"
"I call this having a keen eye for talent."
"You call that being blind as a bat."
Wang Shen just smiled and didn’t respond.
Xie Yi, however, nodded at Li Dong.
"Professor Li, it’s a pleasure to meet you."
"Academician Xie, the pleasure is all mine."
Li Dong replied politely.
「In the conference room.」
The four of them sat around a long conference table.
Wu Kai handed Wang Shen and Xie Yi each a printed copy of the proposal that Li Dong had prepared, and the three of them began flipping through it page by page.
Wang Shen read the most carefully.
He would pause for a few seconds on each page, occasionally making a small dot in the margin with a pencil.
Xie Yi read more quickly.
After finishing her first read-through, she started over from the beginning. On her second pass, she paused at the section on the iron source precursor.
She looked up at Li Dong.
"The synthesis pathway for this site."
"Are you planning to use a modified Hummers’ method or the solvothermal method?"
Li Dong glanced at Xie Yi, surprised.
In his mind, both paths were viable; the choice was mainly up to his own preference.
He hadn’t expected Xie Yi to ask about this very point.
Li Dong thought for a moment before replying.
"I’m personally leaning toward the solvothermal method."
"The site uniformity is more stable."
"But for the pilot-scale production stage, the modified Hummers’ method is more cost-effective."
"Which one is more suitable will depend on the lab-scale test data."
Xie Yi stared at him for several seconds.
Then she smiled.
"Alright."
"I agree."
Beside them, Wang Shen looked up.
"Then let’s settle the division of labor."
"The Yan University College of Chemistry will lead the synthesis of the Fe-N? sites and the two-step coupling of PEG-CTP."
"Our Hecheng Microscale will lead the scale-up from lab to pilot production, as well as the single-atom-level synchrotron radiation characterization at the BL14W beamline."
"For the animal models, we’ll go through the cardiology department at Peking University Third Hospital. Old Wu, your connections there are stronger than ours."
Wu Kai nodded.
"I’ll handle the animal models."
"As for Le Pu Enterprise..."
"When this project moves to the second-generation version, the patent royalty structure for the first-generation enzyme will definitely have to be renegotiated with them."
"I’ll go and hash it out with them."
Xie Yi murmured in agreement.
"What about the path to clinical translation?"
Wu Kai glanced at Li Dong.
"Professor Li and I have already gone over the pathway."
"First, we’ll conduct toxicology, dosage, and therapeutic window studies on small animals."
"Then we’ll move on to the pre-IND application."
"After that, we’ll see if we can get it approved for priority review."
After listening, Wang Shen closed the proposal in front of him.
"Alright."
"The project is officially established."
"Old Wu, go ahead and push things forward with Le Pu. Our experimental line will have beamtime starting tomorrow."
"Professor Li."
Wang Shen glanced at Li Dong.
"From today on, this project is under your name."
Li Dong sighed internally.
’Fine.’
’If they’re going to put my name on it, so be it. With great power comes great responsibility, right?’
’As long as this thing can come to fruition in time to help Zhang Lufang...’
’I guess I can handle being the brilliant one for a while.’
「Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich.」
On the third floor of the physics building on the west side of the main campus, there was a small room.
The sign on the door read: Heliospheric Data Lab.
Clara was sitting at the workstation farthest inside the room.
On her screen was a freshly updated SDO/HMI Dopplergram.
Next to it, in a split-screen window, was the latest set of vector magnetograms from Hinode/SOT (Solar Optical Telescope).
She just stared at it, motionless.
The door behind her was pushed open.
Professor Bruner walked in, holding a mug.
"Clara."
"Professor."
Bruner walked up behind her and glanced at the screen.
"You know..."
"Didn’t Li Dong already pay you in full for your work?"
"Why are you still staring at this stuff?"
Clara smiled.
"Professor."
"Money can buy me a few more Coach bucket bags."
"But it can’t give me this kind of fulfillment."
"I want to watch this warning-system paper go from being on the page to becoming a reality, step by step."
"I think this process is more satisfying than any amount of Swiss Francs you could give me."

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