After being separated from my family, I became a darling of the military region thanks to my medical

The roaring from the telephone receiver almost cracked the thin bakelite shell.

"No! No! No!!!"

The string of German negatives didn't sound like a refusal; it sounded more like a drowning person desperately waving their arms for help. The noise traveled along the telephone line and exploded in the quiet main room. Xiao Wang, the guard standing at the door on watch, shrank back at the shout and instinctively peeked inside, thinking that the secure telephone in the leader's house had come to life.

On the other end of the phone, Hans had clearly lost all composure as Siemens' chief engineer. The sound of the waves was still crashing on his end, but that sense of ease was long gone, replaced by heavy breathing and the rustling of fabric, sounding as if someone was tumbling and jumping off a beach chair.

"Don't hang up! Please, Ye! Don't hang up! To hell with vacation! To hell with sunshine!"

Hans's voice sounded like he was about to cry. The feeling of being suspended in mid-air by the immense technological temptation was worse than death for him. "I'm going to Beijing! Now! Immediately! Right now! You have to believe me, my obsession with that structure surpasses my love for Bavarian beer!"

Ye Zhen sat beside the old mahogany table, her expression unchanged. Her finger, accustomed to holding a scalpel, gently hooked the tangled black telephone cord, idly circling it.

"Oh?"

She raised an eyebrow slightly, her tone as calm as if she were discussing the price of cabbage per pound with a neighbor, "But Hans, I just glanced at the calendar. It's the Lunar New Year, and international flight tickets are probably hard to get. Besides, it's minus ten degrees Celsius in Beijing right now, dry and cold, nothing like the sunbathing in Bali that can give you a bronze tan. Can your old bones take the strain?"

This was like rubbing salt into Hans's heart.

"I'll buy a private jet! If I can't get a private jet, I'll take a cargo plane! Even if I have to strap myself to the landing gear, I'll still fly there!"

Hans was clearly incoherent. All his so-called dignity and arrogance were utterly meaningless in the face of that "clamp design" that could potentially reshape the landscape of surgical instruments for the next twenty years. He was terrified that if he hesitated even for a second, this multi-million dollar idea would fly into someone else's pocket.

The receiver crackled with the sounds of rummaging through drawers and his furious shouts at his secretary. Then, he leaned closer to the receiver, his voice trembling: "Ye! You have to wait for me! Don't tell those bastards at GE that molecular formula! And those Philips idiots who only know how to make light bulbs! It's Siemens! It has to be Siemens! I'm bringing the team! The best structural engineers and materials scientists! We'll do it together!"

Vice Minister Li stood to the side, his eyes wide open, his hands rubbing together on his trouser legs, his palms sticky with the cold sweat from his earlier anxiety. He didn't understand the complex German, but he clearly heard Hans's desperate, wailing tone.

Is this still the same German who held his nose in the air and said that Chinese people couldn't even read the instruction manual and weren't qualified to touch precision instruments?

Ye Zhen switched hands to hold the receiver, leaned back slightly, and found a more comfortable position.

"Since you're here, let's talk about that thing in Shanghai." Her tone was casual, as if it were just a side note. "That extracorporeal circulation machine is still locked. You know, the doctors here are quite eager to learn, so maybe they're having trouble operating it..."

"That's nothing!"

Hans's roar nearly pierced Vice Minister Li's eardrums. Even across the ocean, one could hear the extreme disdain for the so-called "major accident." "It's just a giant toy! If you just show me the design blueprint for that latch, forget about unlocking it, I'll replace your motherboard! I won't just repair the machine, I'll upgrade it for you! Free upgrade! I'll personally adjust all the parameters!"

If he could get his hands on that titanium-magnesium alloy clip structure, he would not hesitate to apply for funding from the board of directors, not just to repair one machine, but to equip every hospital in China with one.

Because he knew that the concept Ye Zhen had put forward was a real gold mine.

"Alright."

Ye Zhen sighed softly, sounding somewhat reluctant, as if she were giving the other party a huge favor. "Since you're so sincere, I can't be too unreasonable. I'll wait for you at the Gu family compound for a few days. Remember, bring plenty of sincerity; you know what I want."

"Definitely! Definitely! I'm going to the airport right now!"

"beep--"

Ye Zhen didn't give the other party another chance to express their determination and hung up the phone decisively.

The red receiver was placed back on its base with a crisp sound.

The sound was like the flip of a switch, and the main room instantly fell into a deathly silence.

The old clock on the wall ticked away, while the firecrackers outside the window crackled and popped, sending shivers down one's spine. This commotion only served to highlight the eeriness of the silence inside, as if they were all frozen in place by the telephone line.

Vice Minister Li stared wide-eyed, his jaw agape. He stared blankly at Ye Zhen, his eyes devoid of the air of authority he had when he entered, now filled with fear and bewilderment. He felt as if all his decades of experience in foreign affairs had been wasted in this moment.

That... solves it?

That major diplomatic incident that had the Ministry of Health in a state of panic and Shanghai in a state of utter despair was resolved by this girl with just one phone call and a few cryptic words of casual conversation.

Not only did they solve the critical machine lock-up problem, but they also summoned that arrogant German expert, who looked down on everyone, like calling his own watchdog.

They even expect to bring their own team, equipment, and free upgrades?

"This...this..."

Vice Minister Li stammered for a long time, his tongue seemed to be tied in knots, and he couldn't squeeze out a single complete word. He felt his head buzzing, as if someone had shoved a lit firecracker into it.

"Oh."

A soft laugh broke the silence.

Gu Zheng finally couldn't help but laugh out loud. He stood up from his chair, his casual clothes unable to conceal his upright military posture. He picked up the purple clay teapot on the table and gracefully poured a cup of hot tea for the still petrified Vice Minister Li.

Tea is poured into the cup, and steam rises gently.

"Uncle Li, have some tea to calm your nerves."

Gu Zheng pushed the teacup towards Vice Minister Li, his tone brimming with undisguised smugness. His deep eyes swept over his wife, and the air of "look how awesome my wife is" practically overflowed from his eyes and brows, making him even more smug than if he had won a battle himself.

"I knew it! This is such a small matter, you didn't need to make a trip during the Chinese New Year. It's just a matter of a few phone calls."

Vice Minister Li's hand trembled as he held the teacup, the scalding tea splashing onto the back of his hand, but he didn't even feel the heat. He swallowed hard, his Adam's apple bobbing, staring intently at Ye Zhen as if trying to see a flower bloom on her face.

"Xiao Ye, that thing you mentioned earlier... Tai Mei Alloy, is it real?"

He may not understand technology, but he understands human nature. Hans's frenzied state just now was definitely not an act.

Ye Zhen sat back down at the table and picked up her chopsticks again. The dumplings on the table had gotten a little cold, and the wrappers were slightly hard, but this didn't affect her appetite. She calmly picked one up, dipped it in the vinegar dish, and did so as casually as if she had just made a phone call to urge the gas cylinder to be emptied.

"Half of it is true, and half of it is made up."

She took a bite of the dumpling; the wrapper, with its wheat-ear-shaped edges, was chewy, and the broth inside, though no longer hot, was still delicious. She chewed it carefully until she swallowed, then slowly opened her mouth.

"The theory is true. The non-magnetic nature of titanium-magnesium alloys makes them the best material for future MRI scans. Siemens has invested heavily in research and development in this area, but has been stuck on finding the balance between strength and toughness."

Ye Zhen paused slightly as she spoke, a sharp glint flashing in her clear eyes—the calm composure of a hunter watching its prey fall into its trap.

"However, the specific ratio still needs to be supported by a large amount of experimental data. But that's not important."

Ye Zhen took a bite of the dumpling. The dumpling skin with its wheat-ear-shaped edges was chewy, and the meat filling was delicious. She squinted her eyes in satisfaction and said slowly:

"The important thing is that Hans is a pure tech fanatic, and an even more shrewd businessman than a monkey. As long as he smells meat, he'll run there shirtless, not just to Beijing, but even to Antarctica. That's the magic of technology."

She swallowed the food in her mouth, raised her head, and looked at Vice Minister Li with her clear eyes, her expression as calm as if she had just made a call to urge the delivery.

"Minister Li, please inform the foreign affairs department to prepare for the reception of the delegation."

Ye Zhen pulled out a tissue and wiped her mouth, her tone casual yet exuding an undeniable air of dominance.

"He's not just here to fix machines. This time, he'll have to bring his own food and pay a hefty sum to do free labor for our country's medical research. Siemens' labs and engineers will be revolving around us for the next month. We're definitely not losing out this time."

With a loud "clang".

The lid of the teacup in Vice Minister Li's hand fell onto the table, swirled around several times on the reunion dinner table on New Year's Eve, and finally slumped down next to a plate of cucumber salad.

Looking at the excessively young girl in front of him, a sentence suddenly popped into his mind:

This girl is a national treasure.

Gu Zheng reached out and wiped away a trace of vinegar from Ye Zhen's lips, his eyes filled with doting affection, and chuckled softly, "Wife, you've pulled off this trick of getting something for nothing, even better than our commander."

Ye Zhen glanced at him sideways, a faint smile playing on her lips: "This is called 'technology as equity,' understand? Only what is given when he desires it most is truly valuable. Hurry up and eat, the dumplings are getting cold, Grandma will be heartbroken later."

Outside the window, the first dazzling firework soared into the sky with a "whoosh," illuminating the night sky of Beijing and the magnificent spring that Chinese healthcare was about to usher in.