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

The clock ticks. It's 1:30 a.m.

The light in the study on the second floor was still on. The cicadas chirping in the summer night were making people restless, and the standing fan in the room was running, whirring and shaking its head.

A steaming bowl of plain noodles sat on the corner of the desk. The noodles were neatly arranged, topped with two runny poached eggs, drizzled with sesame oil, and sprinkled with bright green scallions. The savory aroma of lard instantly overpowered the smell of paper and ink that filled the room.

Gu Zheng pulled up a wooden chair and sat astride it, his two long, straight legs propped on the ground. He held a few peanuts in their shells in his hand, crushed them with a "snap," rubbed them between his fingertips, blew off the red skins, and tossed the plump white peanut kernels into a small dish next to him.

"Honey, have some noodles first. If you stay up any longer, I'll nail your study door shut tomorrow."

Ye Zhen didn't even look up; her 2B pencil quickly drew a parabola on the drawing.

"Draw this cross-section."

It was a mechanical drawing. In the middle was an extremely thin hollow tube, topped with an umbrella-shaped net.

Gu Zheng glanced at the drafts covered in foreign languages ​​on the table and pushed the peanut dish towards her. "What's this?"

"A gun that can drill a hole in the heart." Ye Zhen wrote down the last parameter with precision.

She put down her pencil, rubbed her aching wrist, picked up the bowl of noodles, and ate a mouthful with her chopsticks.

After finishing her noodles, Ye Zhen took a piece of toilet paper to wipe her mouth, and her gaze fell across the windowsill onto the calendar on the wall.

1:45 a.m.

If you calculate the time difference, it's exactly 6:45 PM in Munich. At this time, Germans, who appreciate the finer things in life, should have just finished get off work and be preparing to enjoy dinner.

Ye Zhen reached for the red secure phone on the table and shook the handle.

"Switchboard, connecting to an international call, Munich, Germany, Siemens Healthineers Research Center. Yes, transfer to Manager Hans."

Gu Zheng leaned back, his chair legs propped up, and chuckled nonchalantly. "In the middle of the night, those Germans are going to be in deep trouble again. Wouldn't you call this extorting money from capitalists?"

"This is called leveraging technology to disrupt the global supply chain." Ye Zhen's eyes were clear, without any psychological burden of exploiting foreign companies. If it weren't for the fact that China's current precision manufacturing industry couldn't even get close to Teflon coating, she wouldn't even want to share the broth from her contract manufacturing with Siemens.

A persistent hissing sound came from the telephone line. In the 1980s, it was extremely difficult to establish a signal for international long-distance calls.

After waiting for a full five minutes, the call connected with a "click".

A long string of angry German words suddenly burst from the receiver.

"Damn it! Whoever that idiot called me the moment I was cutting a sausage, I'll send you to Siberia to sell ultrasound machines tomorrow!" Hans roared furiously on the other end of the line, with the clatter of cutlery and jazz music playing in the background. Clearly, the manager was enjoying a pleasant pre-weekend evening.

Ye Zhen remained expressionless and spoke in extremely calm, almost metallic German.

"Hans, if your brain is already stuffed with the fat from sausages, I'll send this diagram to GE's technical department. I think they'd be happy to answer my call during dinner time."

The voice on the other end of the phone abruptly stopped. It was as if an invisible hand had gripped my neck tightly.

next second.

Hans's tone instantly changed completely; the mania from a moment ago vanished without a trace, replaced by a humble demeanor as if he were addressing the Pope. "Oh! God! It's Dr. Ye!"

The screeching sound of the chair being pulled out was clearly audible, and Hans's breathing quickened. "I mean, it's a great honor to hear your heavenly voice on a Munich night! What do those idiots at GM know about technology! What are your instructions?"

Gu Zheng, listening from the side, couldn't help but laugh. This foreign devil, his attitude changes faster than turning the pages of a book.

Ye Zhen tapped the newly drawn drawing on the table with her fingertip.

"Get a pen."

"I'm taking it! Just say so!"

"Radio frequency guide wire," Ye Zhen uttered crisply.

Hans froze on the other end. "What?"

"I need an insulated wire with a radio frequency microelectrode at the tip," Ye Zhen said, her words quickening and her logic meticulous. "The diameter cannot exceed 0.014 inches. I'll input a high-frequency current and utilize the instantaneous localized thermal effect to vaporize the calcified tissue in the heart. I want to burn a hole into a completely blocked heart muscle!"

All that could be heard on the other end of the phone was heavy, distorted breathing.

Hans is an expert. He not only understands sales, but also the underlying logic of medical engineering.

The sheer amount of information in those few sentences is enough to slap the faces of those self-proclaimed god-like cardiac surgery authorities in Europe into a pulp! No open-chest surgery, no chainsaw cutting through the sternum, just burning through the muscle inside the beating heart with extremely fine electrodes?

A madman! An absolute madman!

"Dr. Ye... this, this is unheard of! How can the temperature be controlled? If the radiofrequency power is too high, it will burn through the atrium instantly, causing fatal massive bleeding!" Hans stammered, his voice trembling uncontrollably.

"I'll give you the heat source parameters and control algorithm directly," Ye Zhen interrupted him without hesitation. "I only want to ask you, can Siemens' insulating sheath withstand temperatures above 300 degrees Celsius to ensure the tube wall doesn't break down due to heat during radio frequency release?"

Hans swallowed hard, his professional instincts kicking in quickly. "We've used the latest Teflon synthetic coating technology on our test aircraft…it's feasible!"

"Very good." Ye Zhen revealed her real trump card, "After the hole is drilled, the muscle will immediately contract and close in response to stress. So I also need you to make that nickel-titanium alloy that we tested last time into a mesh-like self-expanding stent. Compress it in the sheath, and it will automatically expand inside the channel after release. The outer coating material will be ePTFE (expanded polytetrafluoroethylene) to prevent blood leakage."

"Clatter".

On the other end of the overseas call, Hans dropped the pen he was holding onto the carpet.

First, radiofrequency ablation is performed, then a nickel-titanium memory stent is inserted to forcefully open and create a blood flow channel! This is the ultimate fusion of cardiology and cardiac surgery!

Once this equipment is successfully validated on the operating table, it will completely overturn the rules of congenital heart disease treatment worldwide. Siemens Healthineers' interventional consumables division will leverage this equipment to directly monopolize the cutting-edge global market for the next fifty years!

"I can build them! Dr. Ye! Give me two weeks! No, ten days!" Hans's voice cracked, his fervor bordering on fanaticism like that of a believer who had received a divine decree. "Even if Siemens' Munich headquarters shuts down the entire factory, they will still build these two things for you! This is a miracle! You are God's hand!"

Gu Zheng picked up a peanut and threw it into his mouth, chewing it with a crunching sound.

"Honey, what's that foreigner howling about? He's like a cat whose tail has been stepped on."

"He said he'd discovered a gold mine that could be mined for fifty years," Ye Zhen said, tilting her head and replying in Chinese.

Gu Zheng chuckled. "He does have some sense."

Ye Zhen spoke into the microphone again, her German tone suddenly becoming more assertive and imposing.

"Hans, put away your revelry. Let's talk about the rules."

The fervor on the other end of the phone was instantly doused with cold water. Hans snapped back to reality, a deep sense of awe rising within him for Ye Zhen's flawless strategy. "You may speak."

"First, I provided the core structural drawings, dimensional scales, and clinical algorithm models for these two technologies."

"Siemens is only responsible for the laboratory manufacturing. All core technologies and global patents for these two pieces of equipment belong 100% to the 'Huaxia Heart' Center in Beicheng, China! Siemens only has priority sales agency rights in the Asia-Pacific region."

Hans gasped, a chill running down his spine. "This... President Thomas might go crazy! We've been bearing the enormous costs of R&D and mold making..."

"If he's going crazy, then you go and persuade him." Ye Zhen stood her ground. "Tell him that if he doesn't even have this much long-term vision, then I'll call General Motors or Johnson & Johnson right now to take over this huge cake that's been monopolized for fifty years."

"No, no, no! Please don't hang up!" Hans was sweating profusely. "No problem! China owns 100% of the patent rights! As long as you agree, I'll drag Thomas out of bed tonight to get it stamped!"

"Secondly, this is the first attempt of its kind in all of humanity." Ye Zhen's bottom line was extremely firm. "I demand the most stringent laboratory fatigue test data and animal experiment verification report from Siemens. If even one parameter is missing, this batch of equipment will not be allowed into my catheterization lab. I will not risk the reputation of Chinese doctors and the lives of desperate children to become guinea pigs for capitalists to experiment with."

"Understood! The highest level of fatigue testing! We guarantee you with the life of German machinery!" Hans assured him repeatedly, showing absolutely no inclination to negotiate.

Hans roared, "I'll call the aviation authority right now! Charter a plane! We'll take off from Munich tomorrow with the machine! Dr. Ye, please wait for us!"

"Smack."

Ye Zhen hung up the phone decisively.

The room fell silent again, with only the gentle rustling of the floor fan oscillating.

She carefully folded the heavy blueprints, put them in a brown paper bag, and sealed it. Looking back, she saw that Gu Zheng had already pushed a small dish of peeled peanuts next to her.

"You've completely got those foreign devils under your thumb?" Gu Zheng patted the scraps of skin off his hands, stood up, and his dark eyes were full of laughter.

"They'll be here tomorrow, all excited, chartering a plane to fly over." Ye Zhen grabbed a handful of peanuts and stuffed them into her mouth, savoring their crunchy aroma. "Once they arrive, these Germans will be completely at our mercy."

"Impressive." Gu Zheng walked behind her, his large, warm hand pressing on her shoulder, kneading her stiff muscles with just the right amount of force. "However, with twenty-three British children, you've essentially tied the face of the British Empire and the nerves of the Ministry of Health to the operating table."

"What are you afraid of?" Ye Zhen leaned back against his waist and let out a long sigh of relief.

"Even if the sky falls, your man will be there to hold it up. Just go ahead and do it with confidence." Gu Zheng lowered his head and gently kissed the top of her head, his voice deep yet carrying the strength to lift a cauldron.