The dining table is clean, set with the standard three dishes and one soup. When Mu Nanshu came out of the kitchen with the food, Lu Cheng had just finished washing his hands and was heading to the dining table.

"Do you want some wine? I still have a few bottles of red wine at home," Mu Nanshu suggested.

"You drink now too?" Lu Cheng asked, quite surprised.

"I learned two years ago. Back then, when Sister Xie went abroad, the pressure was high, and we would have a little drink together."

"I'll get the glasses..." Mu Nanshu turned back to the kitchen.

Lu Cheng noticed that Mu Nanshu was wearing the pearl earrings he bought her during his undergraduate years. After all these years, she hadn't lost or thrown them away.

"It's just ordinary grape wine, not like the taste of baijiu, so I'm not sure if you can get used to it," Mu Nanshu said.

Lu Cheng stepped forward to help open the bottle: "I'm not good with alcohol, but it's fine."

After using the corkscrew to pull out the cork, Lu Cheng poured the wine into a decanter and asked, "I heard from Teacher Xie Yuan'an that you often come home past midnight nowadays."

"Is the research pressure at work that intense?"

Xie Yuan'an, although technically a 'mentor,' was actually just an 'auditor' in the later classes after the basic theory courses. Sometimes, Lu Cheng would ask Xie Yuan'an about Mu Nanshu.

"To be honest, at Union Hospital, working full-time in research is quite stressful, and I just joined. If I don't work hard, I can't keep up with the research group's pace," Mu Nanshu replied lightly.

"The group's focus here is completely different from my previous boss's research direction, so I have to get familiar with everything from scratch, and I still need to find my own research direction and ideas. It definitely takes time." She added.

She took off her kitchen apron and invited Lu Cheng to start eating: "Let's eat while we talk. My cooking is average, just edible."

Lu Cheng picked up a piece of spicy ribs and, after taking a bite, said, "Though Long County and E Province are adjacent to Xiang Province, only Long County can replicate Long County's taste; there are always slight adjustments once you leave." 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

"Ribs should be this spicy to be authentic ribs." Lu Cheng said as he cleaned the meat off the bone in one go, then ate with appetite.

Seeing Lu Cheng eat with such gusto, chef Mu Nanshu was quite pleased. She picked up a rib and put it into her mouth, savoring it slowly.

Being a carbohydrate maniac, Lu Cheng ate quickly during meals.

In about ten minutes, Lu Cheng polished off four and a half bowls of rice and stopped: "That was satisfying and delicious."

Mu Nanshu had prepared a large and hearty meal, very much in the 'Xiangxi' style. Two-thirds of the ribs were gone, only half of the spicy roasted pork was eaten, a large portion of cabbage remained, and the seaweed egg drop soup was hardly touched.

"A little sip?" Lu Cheng raised his glass to invite Mu Nanshu.

Mu Nanshu nodded, clinked her glass with Lu Cheng's, and took a sip. Although she wasn't a big eater, she felt almost full but kept eating so Lu Cheng wouldn't eat alone.

The red wine slid smoothly down her esophagus into her stomach without a lingering aftertaste. Mu Nanshu asked, "Sister Xie mentioned that Professor Zhong has taken an interest in you."

"In Long County, Professor Chen Song appreciates your talent and wants to bring you back. Have you decided what to do?"

That Professor Zhong Junyun specially called Lu Cheng out was not a secret. Professor Xie Xiao is a proper senior professor in the department, so she knew about the conversation between Zhong Junyun and Lu Cheng without difficulty.

Perhaps in Professor Zhong Junyun's view, recruiting Lu Cheng was just a casual move, not something to be kept secret.

Lu Cheng said, "Professor Zhong is a top-tier professor in hand surgery nationwide, and his personal promise carries weight. Following him would certainly allow me to learn real skills."

"But agreeing on the surface is just that; whether or not I follow Professor Zhong's plan entirely is still unknown."

"Professor Zhong agreed with my plan to pursue a sub-senior title before coming to learn from him."

"There's still a long time in between."

Mu Nanshu was taken aback, a slight surprise on her face: "You're not planning to follow Teacher Zhong's arrangement?"

Lu Cheng replied, "I will respect and listen, but won't follow it to the letter."

"Teacher Zhong just met me for the first time, so his arrangement is based on this brief understanding, not the optimal solution."

Mu Nanshu pressed, "Then what do you think is the optimal solution?"

Lu Cheng said, "I haven't figured it out yet, but improving my academic credentials is a must, otherwise I'll always be constrained. But how to improve will still need assistance."

Lu Cheng finished speaking, looked at Mu Nanshu, scanning her up and down. Then he fixated on his favorite, her eyes.

Familiar peach blossom eyes, familiar brown spot at the end of the eyelid, familiar ink-jade-like pupils.

Her pupils were still quite clear.

"How can I help you?" Mu Nanshu asked.

Of course, after asking, she added, "I heard Sister Xie said your clinical talent is truly remarkable, and it's not just me saying this."

"Just in these recent days, your rapid progress in nerve suturing skill has even surprised several professors."

"They are professional experts in hand surgery, and if they say your talent is exceptional, it must be really outstanding."

"My suggestion is, after you return, you could resign, then study full-time for a master's and doctoral degree, and request to graduate and defend with a clinical thesis here."

"Although foundational scientific research is the mainstream in medical competition, the real grassroots topics are the clinical ones."

Lu Cheng nodded, "Your suggestion is good too, like other teachers, it's a high-quality solution, but for me personally, it's not the absolute best solution."

"What I need your help with is, how should I start from knowing nothing and thoroughly complete a relatively standard clinical project."

Mu Nanshu's eyebrows furrowed slightly, her slender brows gathering slightly——

"What kind of clinical project do you have?"

"The last time I talked to you about the tendon suturing technique, wasn't it said that the current technique pioneered by Professor Tong and the team at Xiangya Hospital isn't better than the Tajima Suturing Technique?" Lu Cheng said.

Mu Nanshu, not dull, said in a slightly sharp voice: "Don't tell me you modified the techniques on the team's basis?"

Lu Cheng glanced at his panel, then nodded gently: "Maybe, but it's hard to give a final evaluation right now."

"But I am confident in it, and last time I participated with Professor Tong Yuan'an in the comparative animal model experiment of technique efficacy, completing the prelude data for a set of research shouldn't be difficult."

Mu Nanshu said firmly: "No, you don't have money!~"

"You have no funding; you can't do it!~"

"If you're going to self-fund entirely, you absolutely can't afford it! So you need to affiliate."

Lu Cheng, not entirely a research novice, nodded: "That's what I intend to discuss with Teacher Chen."

"Teacher Chen does indeed appreciate me, his kindness is hard to measure or repay, so I can only empathize."