Chapter 33 (2/2)

Jiajia replied, “He’s a special one. I can’t explain it in a few words; just do as I say.”

“Okay, then. He looks a little… distant.”

“Just say that you’re my friend and see if he’s willing to help.”

“…”

She just told Zhou Wen that she was not close to Jiajia.

“Okay, then. Thanks! I’ll treat you to a meal next time.”

“No problem.”

Shen Xue kept her phone away and began thinking about how she should ask Zhou Wen for the favor.

Yet, even when the conference ended, she still had not mustered the courage to ask him.

It was mainly because Zhou Wen was too focused on reading his documents, so it would be too rude to disturb him.

After the dismissal, Shen Xue followed Zhou Wen out of the conference hall and went down the lift with him.

When they reached the designated floor, Zhou Wen walked leisurely to the testing center. Shen Xue, on the other hand, hesitated for a while and shouted, “Eh, please wait. Zhou… Wen.”

Zhou Wen turned around and saw the female doctor who was sitting next to him.

He just realized that this female doctor was really tall – about 170cm – and she was very slender as well.

“Yes?”

Shen Xue walked towards him and said awkwardly, “Uh… I wanted to ask you for a favor.”

Zhou Wen replied, “I’m new to the hospital; I don’t think I’ll be able to help with anything.”

‘Too much humility is pretentiousness,’ Shen Xue thought to herself, but she did not know what to say. She had never had to ask for a favor from anyone before, and she did not know what attitude to adopt.

“Uh…” Shen Xue pondered. Then, she gritted her teeth and took her phone out to play Jiajia’s voice message.

“Ask him for help; he has more influence than me.”

‘This woman is really giving me unnecessary trouble,’ Zhou Wen thought to himself. He felt a little grumpy as he was busy with his paper. Therefore, he did not really have much time to help. Although there was no deadline for his paper, there was a lot of preparation work to do.

He rubbed his eyebrow and asked, “What’s the name of your cousin?”

Shen Xue was ecstatic and quickly told Zhou Wen her cousin’s name and the information about the test that was conducted.

Zhou Wen nodded. “Okay, got it,”

Then, he left.

Shen Xue did not get to say thanks, so she puffed her cheeks up and thought, ‘Are all geniuses so mean?’

Meanwhile, Zhou Wen arrived at the entrance of the testing center. The person who took his Zhonghua cigarette and 500 dollars, Lu Qing, called him. He said that the requested chemicals and drugs were all ready.

Zhou Wen thanked him and hung up.

Then, he went to the sample processing group on the third floor.

The specimen from the surgical room will firstly be sent to the Department of Pathology. After the sample had been collected and documented, it would be sent to the sample processing group in the testing center.

Fix, dye, slice, examine, observe the nature of the lesion, determine if it was malignant or benign, determine the severity of the lesion, and so on.

Shen Xue’s cousin had only sent her specimen yesterday, so it should still be in the queue. One week would be an optimistic estimate for the time it would take for their sample to be processed.

Zhou Wen went straight to the office. Every group leader had a deputy leader. Take Wu Yan, for example. She was addressed as the deputy leader. The deputy leader was mainly in charge of helping the group leader with some administrative work. The deputy leader of the sample processing group was called Sun Jing.

She was 30 this year and was already a mother of two. Sun Jing was very close to Wu Yan, so she was pretty nice to him too. She was the one who got his little lab room for him.

Sun Jing was writing a data report when Zhou Wen came in. She smiled and said, “Ah, you came just in time! I was just wanting to ask you for a favor.”

Zhou Wen smiled. “Please ask! I’ll do anything for you.”

Sun Jing laughed. “Don’t sweet-talk me. I won’t ask you for too much. I have a friend who is queuing for a viral test now. You’re an expert, so I wanted to ask you for help.”

Like the doctors in the hospitals, the researchers in the testing centers had many “friends.” Every day, there would be all types of cousins, friends, classmates, aunts, and so on, asking for help.

Ever since he joined, Zhou Wen had heard the phrase “I have a friend who…” for so many times that he had already gotten used to it.

Before he could finish his sentence, he heard a notification from the system. A task was triggered.

[Ding! A task from Sun Jing’s friend, do you want to accept it?]

Zhou Wen was a little amused as he would have never guessed that Shen Xue was the key to triggering a task.

Then, he wondered what would have happened if he had declined her request; would he still receive this task?

It was hard to say.

“No problem. I’ll do it later today! But you’ll have to stop calling me an expert; I just got lucky.” Zhou Wen made a pitiful face.

Sun Jing laughed again. “What do you mean, you got lucky? The group leader for the Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Lin Huaidong, commended your ability in public, in front of so many experts! How could it be just luck? An expert is an expert; it cannot be faked; there’s no need to sell yourself short!”

“Yes, yes, yes…” Zhou Wen could not argue with her, so he could only accept the title – ‘expert.’

He took the chance to talk about Shen Xue’s request.

Sun Jing checked the computer records right away and found that the patient was arranged to be tested eight days later. She immediately re-arranged the patient’s schedule to this evening and even added a remark – ‘urgent.’

“The result will be out tomorrow morning…”