Eunuch, do you really know these martial arts?

Inside the operating room, the shadowless lamps illuminated the simulated operating table in a pure white light.

"Lifeline, Scene 93, Shot 1, Action!"

Field recorder.

"Borne surgery must be performed immediately."

Jiang Nian's voice came through the mask, sounding somewhat muffled, but each word was clear and powerful.

He pointed the simulated scalpel at the angiography chart hanging on the wall, "This is the only solution."

Chen Yang, played by Chen Xiao, stepped forward and stared at the imaging image: "Dr. Lu, I have studied this case."

“The patient also has severe pulmonary fibrosis, and the risk of open-chest surgery under general anesthesia is too high. I think interventional treatment can be considered, although the success rate is lower, it is less invasive.”

"The success rate of interventional treatment in this congested area is less than 30%."

Without looking up, Jiang began disinfecting his hands before the procedure. "By the time the catheter has repeatedly failed to reach the blood vessel, the patient's heart may have already stopped beating."

“But that’s only a possibility!” Chen Xiao’s voice rose a few points. “And with open-chest surgery, his lung function might not be able to withstand it! That’s a definite risk!”

Jiang Nian finally raised her head: "Dr. Chen, it's impossible in the operating room. We can only make a probability assessment based on data and experience."

The atmosphere between the two became increasingly tense.

Behind the monitor, director Zhang Yi stared intently at the screen and whispered to the cameraman beside him, "Pull the camera in and give Jiang Nian's eyes a close-up. I want to see the suppressed anger."

Inside the operating room, as per the script, Chen Yang, played by Chen Xiao, accidentally knocked over the instrument cart in his excitement.

"Bang!"

The simulated surgical instruments were scattered all over the floor.

This should have been an accident, but Chen Xiao was nervous and his movements were too large, so the sound of the equipment cart falling over was much louder than expected, and several metal instruments even rolled to Jiang Nian's feet.

Chen Xiao was stunned for a moment.

This detail is not in the script.

In that instant of pause, Jiang Nian moved.

He bent down, picked up a pair of surgical forceps from beside his feet, his movements slow and precise. Then he straightened up and gently placed the forceps back on the adjacent instrument table.

Throughout the entire process, his gaze never left Chen Xiao.

There was no accusation or anger in his eyes.

“In the operating room,” Jiang Nian’s voice dropped a few decibels, each word like an icicle, “you can question, you can argue, but you can’t panic.”

He took a step forward, reducing the distance between them to less than half a meter.

"Because here, your hands are stained with—"

Jiang Nian raised her freshly disinfected hands, the gloves gleaming under the operating lights. "It's not equipment, it's human life."

Chen Xiao was stunned by the impromptu performance and the imposing manner, completely forgetting his lines and just staring blankly at Jiang Nian.

"Card!"

Director Zhang Yi stood up, but instead of being angry, he clapped: "Good! Jiang Nian, that scene you added was great! Chen Xiao, your stunned expression was very realistic. Let's do it again with that expression, starting from where the equipment vehicle fell!"

Chen Xiao then came to his senses, his face turning red instantly: "I'm sorry, director, I forgot my lines..."

"It's alright, that feeling of being stunned just now was just part of the plot." Zhang Yi waved his hand. "All departments, get ready, let's start again!"

The second shoot went much more smoothly.

Chen Xiao's performance was completely boosted by Jiang Nian.

"Cut! Pass!"

Director Zhang Yi called a stop with satisfaction, "This take is excellent! Full of emotion and with strong layers! Take a twenty-minute break, then prepare for the next scene!"

The operating room door opened, and staff began tidying up the scene.

Chen Xiao was still immersed in the role when he walked up to Jiang Nian and bowed deeply: "Teacher Jiang, I'm sorry for what happened just now. I didn't know my own strength."

"Getting into character is a good thing."

Jiang Nian removed his mask and surgical cap, revealing a fine layer of sweat on his forehead. "But remember, a real doctor must keep his hands steady under any circumstances."

"Yes, I understand." Chen Xiao nodded solemnly.

Su Qing handed over warm water and a towel at the right moment, and whispered to Jiang Nian, "Teacher Jiang, the base has a call, Elder Qin has something urgent to say."

Jiang Nian took the water glass and walked to a relatively quiet corner.

"Advisor Jiang." Old Qin's voice came through the miniature communicator in his ear, tinged with suppressed excitement, "The follow-up monitoring data from last night's training is in, and we've made a major discovery!"

"Speak," Jiang Nian said, taking a sip of water.

"The activity of the markers in your body showed three spontaneous small fluctuations within seven hours after the training ended!"

Jiang Nian's eyes narrowed: "Spontaneity?"

"Yes! There was no external stimulus; it was triggered unconsciously by your own nervous system."

Old Qin speaks very quickly.

"what does that mean?"

"This means your nervous system may be adapting to these markers and beginning to integrate them into your basic circadian rhythms!"

Old Qin's voice trembled slightly with excitement.

"If this trend continues, you may unknowingly gain basic control over the activity of the label!"

Jiang Nian remained silent for a few seconds.

This sounds like a good thing.

If these markers must exist, then being able to control them is better than passively accepting them.

But his intuition told him that things weren't that simple.

"What do you need me to do?"

"Continue with your normal life and work, but record any subtle unusual sensations, even if it's just a momentary dizziness or a loss of focus."

Old Qin paused for a moment, then added, "In addition, the next training session may be postponed to three days from now. We need time to redesign the plan to make the training more gentle and gradual."

"clear."

Communication ends.

Jiang Nian walked back to the rest area, where Chen Xiao was discussing the details of the scene with the assistant director.

Lin Wan also came over. When she saw Jiang Nian, she greeted him with a smile: "Teacher Jiang, I heard that the scene in the operating room just now was particularly exciting. It's a pity I wasn't there."

"Chen Xiao acted very well," Jiang Nian said.

Chen Xiao scratched his head sheepishly: "It's all thanks to Teacher Jiang's excellent guidance."

Director Zhang Yi walked over and patted Jiang Nian on the shoulder.

"You have two more scenes this afternoon, both dialogue scenes, not too strenuous. Go home and rest early after you finish filming. You don't have any scenes tomorrow morning, so you can sleep in a bit."

"it is good."

The afternoon shoot went smoothly.

By 4:30, all the plans for the day were completed.

When filming wrapped up, Zhang Yi called the main actors together: "We're shooting exterior scenes at the hospital tomorrow. Everyone, please pay attention to the schedule and don't be late."

"Jiang Nian, you should get some rest. The rooftop flashback scene the day after tomorrow will really test your performance."

"I understand, director."

On the way back to the hotel, Jiang Nian closed his eyes to rest.

“Teacher Jiang,” Su Qing turned around from the front row, “new intelligence has been gathered from the base.”

Jiang Nian opened her eyes.

"In the South China Sea, the two suspicious research vessels stayed outside the target area for eight hours before leaving, without any indication of diving operations."

"But one of our high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft detected an unusual period of radio silence on one of the ships at night, which lasted forty minutes."

"Where are the organization's aircraft?"

“It did not reappear.” Su Qing pulled up the report on the tablet. “However, the sonar monitoring network recorded three extremely brief depth vibration signals at the edge of the target sea area. The source depth was more than 1,500 meters, and the magnitude was very small. It may have been caused by the activation or deactivation of a small device.”

1,500 meters.

Jiang Nian recalled that when he encountered the spacecraft before, it had risen from a depth of 1,100 meters.

If the organization has facilities in deeper areas.

"The technical department has made new progress in analyzing the beam residue extracted from the Haiying robotic arm."

Su Qing continued her report, "The composition of that particle stream is very special, containing a variety of isotopes that can only exist stably under high pressure in the deep sea. Elder Qin speculated that the organization's energy system may have directly utilized deep-sea geothermal or chemical energy."

Deep-sea energy.

Jiang Nian recalled his experience of escaping from the hydrothermal vent area.

If an organization can truly establish a base and operate stably in that environment, their materials science and engineering capabilities would likely be more than a decade ahead of the rest of the world.

"What instructions does Chief Bai have?" he asked.

"We will strengthen monitoring and refrain from provoking any further incidents," Su Qing said. "However, all frontline units have raised their alert levels."

Jiang Nian nodded.

This is necessary caution.

As the car entered the hotel's underground parking garage, Chen Meng suddenly spoke up: "Teacher Jiang, that gray sedan at three o'clock has been following us ever since we came out of the film set, maintaining a very good distance."

Jiang Nian didn't turn her head, but only glanced at it through the reflection in the car window.

A typical domestically produced sedan with a local license plate.

"Can you verify my identity?" he asked.

"The license plate has been photographed and sent back to the base for analysis."

Chen Meng smoothly turned the steering wheel and parked the car in the designated parking space. "Su Qing, you go upstairs with Teacher Jiang first. I'll take care of this."

"Be careful."

Su Qing nodded and quickly got out of the car to open the door for Jiang Nian.

As the two entered the elevator, Chen Meng was already walking towards the gray sedan.

The elevator doors closed, and Su Qing pressed the floor button, whispering, "It could be paparazzi, or it could be someone else. The base will find out."

"What if it's someone from the organization?" Jiang Nian asked.

"That's too blatant of them."

Su Qing shook her head. "Following a well-known actor in the city would be too risky and would not be in line with the organization's consistent covert approach."

The elevator has arrived at the floor.

The corridor was quiet, with only the cleaners pushing their carts and working in the distance.

Su Qing used her key card to open the door, quickly checked it over, and only allowed Jiang Nian to enter after confirming it was safe.

“You rest first, I’ll go prepare dinner,” she said.

Jiang Nian walked to the window and pulled back a corner of the curtain.

From this angle, you can see the hotel entrance and part of the street.

The gray sedan was gone.

Five minutes later, Chen Meng returned.

"We've found out. It's a newly established entertainment media outlet that wants to dig up exclusive news about your comeback," he reported. "I advised them to go find Wu Ming, and they should stop following us now."

"media……"

Jiang Nian lowered the curtains.

In this information age, media attention can be both a protective shield and a vulnerability.

"Does the base need to intervene in dealing with that media outlet?" Su Qing asked.

“No need.” Jiang Nian shook his head. “It’s normal media behavior. Overreacting will only arouse suspicion. Let Wu Ming handle it.”

After dinner, Jiang Nian read the script as usual.

At 9 p.m., the encrypted communication was restored.

This time it's Bai Yongxu.

"Jiang Nian, Elder Qin has reported on today's situation." Bai Yongxu's image appeared on the tablet screen, the background being his office. He looked even more tired than a few days ago. "What are your thoughts on the autonomous integration of labeled activity?"

"My body is adapting."

Jiang Nian answered truthfully, "I don't feel any discomfort at the moment; on the contrary, I feel that my perception is clearer."

"Qin's team developed a risk prediction model, and the results show that if the integration process goes smoothly, you may gain basic proactive control capabilities within two weeks."

"So we need you to make a choice: whether to continue letting the process develop naturally, or to temporarily suppress the integration speed through drug intervention, and continue after we have a more thorough understanding."

Jiang Nian remained silent for a moment.

Do these suppressive drugs have side effects?

"Yes. It may cause the label activity to remain at a low level for a long time, affecting the research progress of Professor Qin's team, and may also cause you to lose the opportunity to control these labels independently."

Bai Yongxu frankly stated, "But it's relatively safe."

"What if symptoms of disorder occur if we choose to develop naturally?"

"We have prepared contingency plans, including effective medications and physical interventions, which can control symptoms within an hour of their onset."

Bai Yongxu looked at Jiang Nian, "But there are still risks involved."

The room fell silent.

Jiang Nian walked to the window and looked at the city lights outside.

From this angle, he could see the direction of the film and television base, with several studios still lit up, and he wondered which film crew was shooting a night scene.

"I choose natural development."

He turned around and spoke to the screen.

Bai Yongxu didn't seem surprised, and simply nodded: "Reason?"

"Waiting passively is more dangerous."

Even if it means taking risks?

“We’ve always been taking risks,” Jiang Nian said calmly. “Since Greenland, which step hasn’t been?”

Bai Yongxu was silent for a few seconds, then finally let out a slow breath: "Okay. The base will fully support you. Old Qin's team will monitor your data 24 hours a day, and we will immediately activate the emergency plan if any abnormal signs appear."

“In addition,” he pulled up a document, “we need to formulate the next steps regarding the new developments in the South China Sea.”

Jiang Nian sat back down at the table and looked at the screen.

"After the organization's two research vessels left, our satellites detected slight but regular changes in the sea surface temperature in the target area."

Bai Yongxu showed a set of thermal images, "Look here, this circular area with a diameter of about 500 meters has a temperature that is 0.2 to 0.5 degrees Celsius higher than the surrounding area, and this has lasted for six hours."

"Heat emissions from underwater facilities?"

“It’s highly likely.” Bai Yongxu nodded. “The technical department’s analysis shows that this heat emission pattern is consistent with the characteristics of a large-scale circulating cooling system.”

"If it is indeed the organization's base, its size may be larger than we estimated."

"Why did they suddenly increase their activity?" Jiang Nian asked. "Because of my signal?"

"Not entirely, they are making preparations."

"And it was a very rushed preparation."

Bai Yongxu pointed to another set of data: "The increase in thermal emissions, the activity of suspicious vessels, and the appearance of previous aircraft have all been concentrated in the past 72 hours. This indicates that the window of opportunity may be very close, perhaps in just a few days."

A few days.

Jiang Nian felt a sense of urgency.

"What do we need to do?"

"Two things." (End of Chapter)