FT DR Chapter 49: Her Majesty the Queen Makes a Small Stove

Chapter 49: Her Majesty the Queen Makes a Small Stove

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Karai

Due to the long passage of time, although Jin Xuan discovered traces of tampering in Mu’s ID information, most of the past data had already been obliterated, making it very difficult to recover. Therefore, the investigation in this regard was temporarily suspended, and he sought other breakthroughs instead, such as the qualification appraisal association for doctors. However, these pieces of information were very trivial, requiring long-term screening and sorting, and it would be difficult to have systematic results in the short term.

Fortunately, Mu didn’t seem to have any malicious intent towards Wu Chenghe. While openly strict, he was privately very protective, so Jin Xuan wasn’t too anxious.

After the semester exams, the Dunkirk Continent welcomed its coldest season of the year. The Twin City saw its first snowfall, making the weather crisp and cold. And the “weather” at the medical school also became cold and refreshing due to the “serious management” of the dean.

Mu delivered on his promises. Since his last speech to the entire school, he had ordered everyone to strictly enforce all rules and regulations, from teaching management to cafeteria hygiene. Any violation resulted in severe punishment, leaving students and teachers alike in constant complaints. Even Miss Lancer, who initially reported the violations, regretted it deeply.

Wu Chenghe was relatively law-abiding among the students, yet he still got into trouble several times. Once, he was criticized by the whole class for not writing his full name (he only wrote his last name) in a pathology assignment. Another time, he was listed as one of the “least welcome people” in the cafeteria because he left half a cup of juice. And yet another time, he was fined twenty federal coins for not wearing the school emblem in class.

If even someone as honest as Wu Chenghe could accumulate so many demerits, it was no wonder others were faring worse. Everyone felt that life was becoming unbearable, yet they couldn’t find faults to pick on—everything Mu did was according to school regulations. So, all they could do was curse whoever had written those rules in the first place.

Apart from these incidents, Wu Chenghe’s life was relatively smooth in other aspects. Since obtaining access to the experimental center, he went in there every day to check on the automatic cleaning machines’ work and to slack off. Although he had studied eight years of medicine in his past life, centuries had passed, and technological advancements had changed significantly. There was still much knowledge, especially in applied medicine, that he needed to catch up on.

The first time he stayed behind in the lab over the weekend, he encountered Mu. At that time, he was searching for treatment flaws on a patient robot previously used by a senior student. Just as he attempted to extend his mental tendrils into the robot’s brain, he felt a cold breath approaching from behind. Then came Mu’s low voice, “Have you found the problem?”

Wu Chenghe was startled and quickly withdrew his tendrils, opening his eyes. “D-Dean!”

Mu looked at him expressionlessly and said, “It’s a reflex in the left hemisphere of the brain caused by mental stimulation.”

“Oh.” Wu Chenghe quickly activated the holographic endoscopy system to scan the left hemisphere of the patient robot’s cortex. Unfortunately, he couldn’t find the problem Mu mentioned after a long time. 

Just as he was about to ask for help, Mu sneered, “What are you looking for? I wasn’t talking about the patient. I was talking about you! Did you do something unspeakable? Why do you stutter every time you see me?”

Cold sweat dripped down Wu Chenghe’s forehead. Now he realized Mu wasn’t guiding him earlier; he was mocking his stutter. In the human brain, speech centers are controlled by the cortex. For right-handed people, it’s the left brain, and for left-handed people, it’s the right brain. When frightened, the cortex can reflexively cause stuttering.

“I-I-I… this was used by them, I just wanted to observe before resetting it.” Wu Chenghe couldn’t control his cortex when he saw Mu, continuing to stutter. “I’m sorry, I violated the rules…”

“A lesion in the brainstem hasn’t been completely removed,” Mu interrupted coldly. “The system indicates incomplete surgery results, and the patient may relapse within one to two years.”

“Huh?” Wu Chenghe was stunned, only then realizing that Mu was referring to the patient robot. He quickly enlarged the three-dimensional projection of the brainstem and indeed found a faint red dot blinking below.

“This position is too close to the brainstem. If the particle scalpel cuts too deep, even if it’s just one-tenth of a micron, it could cause permanent brain damage.” Mu held his head and instructed him to observe the lesion, almost shoving his face into the holographic system. “So, in general, doctors tend to be more conservative in handling such cases. They’d rather leave it untreated once than risk rushing in and causing a relapse.”

Wu Chenghe hadn’t had much contact with neurosurgery in his past life, but he understood this principle. Tentatively, he asked, “So, is their handling of this matter reasonable?”

“Yes, it makes sense. This way, doctors bear much less risk. If something goes wrong after surgery, like the patient becoming paralyzed or losing memory, they would be in big trouble.” Mu let go of Wu Chenghe’s head and said, “So, in this world, there are many doctors, but not many qualified ones. Most of those standing by the operating table are actually just hacks.”

Wu Chenghe was taken aback. He had never heard such a brutal broadside in his two lifetimes. He adjusted his hair and said, “You can’t put it that way… They are also doing it for the patients. After all, the brain is different from other organs. It’s good to be conservative.”

“Tsk!” Mu sneered and said, “Conservative? What does conservative mean? On the operating table, conservatism essentially means incompetence! It means the inability to fully control the case!”

“But… the precision of instruments has its limits. No one can fully control the lesions. For example, endoscopic systems, particle scalpels, they all have maximum precision limits…” Wu Chenghe unwittingly began to argue with him.

“If we have to rely entirely on machines, what’s the point of having doctors?” Mu countered. “We might as well replace doctors with AI. Their precision can match that of scalpels, far exceeding human eyes and hands.”

Wu Chenghe was speechless. After nearly a thousand years of technological development, artificial intelligence has become quite advanced. Nowadays, many simple diagnoses and surgeries were performed by AI robots. However, high-precision surgeries still required human intervention. Like many scientists had asserted in his previous life, even the most precise AI couldn’t fully replace humans in many aspects.

“Outstanding doctors have the most valuable quality: intuition,” Mu said. “Intuition is a comprehensive concept, including knowledge, experience, talent, and so on. A qualified doctor, when standing at the operating table, must be able to use their intuition to lead the entire surgery and control the whole situation.” He poked Wu Chenghe’s head with a finger. “Although you’re moving your hands, what’s really operating is here. Understand, kid?”

“Uh…” Wu Chenghe took a step back from his poking, saying, “I got it.”

“This is just an ordinary patient robot, simulating a normal human. In fact, we’ll encounter many sentinel cases, with more complex brain structures involving high-dimensional structures that humans can’t fully control. If we rely solely on instruments, we might as well let them die.” Mu continued, “And as for guides, don’t even get me started. Their brains are like multidimensional mazes. For those hacks, it’s simply a disaster.”

Wu Chenghe nodded. He had seen two sentinel specimens, but guides were so rare that even in a place like Aston Medical School, there were no specimens.

“So, to become an outstanding doctor, you must learn to train your brain. It’s not enough to rely solely on skills. That’s just butchery.” Mu closed the patient robot, looked at Wu Chenghe with a pensive expression, raised an eyebrow, and a hint of a smile appeared at the corner of his mouth. But his words were still piercing, “But, with your intelligence, why am I even bothering to tell you all this? It’s a waste of emotion. For most people, just being able to scrape by is already good enough. So, don’t set your expectations too high, otherwise, you’ll crash.”

With that, he took out a few federal coins from his pocket and tossed them to Wu Chenghe. “Go on, do what you can do. Run some errands, buy me a nutrition pack and a cup of coffee. Use the rest to buy yourself some spinach juice to boost your brain. Every time I see your clueless expression, I feel like this school is just a waste dump!”

Wu Chenghe had gotten used to his various jabs and calmly said, “Thank you,” then went to find a vending machine. 

Mu watched his figure disappear outside the door, flicked the patient robot’s head with his slender fingers, muttering to himself, “Good aptitude, good foundation, but still too green. Where did he learn so many ancient techniques? He’s like a mummy resurrected…”

Since then, Wu Chenghe found that whenever he went to the lab, he would run into Mu five or six times out of ten. Mu would mock him first, then carefully explain to him, and finally, as a matter of routine, strike him with a few words of criticism before inviting him to dinner by tossing him money. Sometimes, during weekends when extra classes were held for senior students, Mu would have him called over to stand nearby under the guise of assisting, tidying up or listening on the side.

As for his breach of school rules by using lab resources without permission, Mu chose to turn a blind eye to it, never mentioning it.

Wu Chenghe appreciated Mu’s guidance, but at the same time, he became increasingly puzzled. Mu’s guidance seemed scattered at first, but over time, it became apparent that it was targeted at honing his intuition. As a guide, intuition was essentially the same as consciousness. After Mu’s guidance, Wu Chenghe clearly felt that he had improved his application of consciousness. The sensitivity of his mental tendrils had also greatly increased. Previously, it took him a long time to find issues in the experiments of senior students, but now, he corrected them even faster than substitute teachers.

Wu Chenghe didn’t know if this was accidental or planned by Mu from the beginning. If it was the latter, it was chilling—had Mu already figured out that he was a guide, hence adopting this method to guide him?

How did Mu come up with such a guiding method? If he’s just an ordinary person, how could he have the ability to guide a guide to improve consciousness? These thoughts made Wu Chenghe’s heart pound. He began to deliberately inquire about Mu’s situation. Just as rumored, Dean Mu was a workaholic. He spent most of his time either in the office, the lab, or on rounds at the affiliated hospital. He had no family, no lover, and few friends. He didn’t get too close to anyone and didn’t participate in any social activities. Even his closest secretary and vice dean only knew about his on-campus dormitory, not his off-campus residence.

His life was so simple yet so mysterious. Simple because eighty percent of his time was spent working; mysterious because no one knew what he was doing with the remaining twenty percent of his time. Sometimes, Wu Chenghe even suspected if Mu might be a guide too. Because only guides would avoid getting close to anyone like this. Normal people, even sentinels, couldn’t live as solitary as Mu did. Even Jin Zhe, who was an advocate of being single, had Jin Xuan. 

But he ultimately overturned his suspicion. Guides couldn’t possibly live in such densely populated places like medical schools. Aside from that, just hiding a quantum beast would pose a major problem. Moreover, adult guides emitted pheromones when they encountered compatible mates. Mu was already forty-nine years old; it was impossible for him not to have estrus for decades unless he had himself neutered. But he had applied for artificial insemination, indicating that his body was normal and his reproductive abilities weren’t suppressed.

Perhaps he was just a weirdo… That was the conclusion Wu Chenghe eventually arrived at.

Time slowly passed, and before he knew it, the semester was coming to an end. One evening approaching the final exams, Wu Chenghe received a call from Yuna. Commander Hannibal had finished the military exercises in the Lyra Constellation and had come to the capitol to report to the President. He asked Wu Chenghe to meet him at the hotel where he was staying the next evening.

It had been almost half a year since he last saw his adoptive father. Wu Chenghe’s impression of him had become somewhat blurry. They had exchanged a few words during the beginning of the school year, but then Hannibal went to the Lyra Constellation for closed-door exercises, and they hadn’t contacted each other since.

The next afternoon after class, Wu Chenghe changed his clothes and took a bus to the Imperial Grand Hotel where Hannibal was staying. This was the highest-standard hotel under the Federal Legion, with a strict security system. All military and political officials returning to the capitol would stay here.

When he entered the suite, Marlow was already there, sitting on the sofa by the window, talking to Hannibal. Half a year hadn’t changed Hannibal much; he still looked as dignified and spirited as ever.

As soon as Wu Chenghe entered, Hannibal stood up, smiling and waving at him, “Charlie, come here and let me have a look at you.” 

“Dad.” Wu Chenghe called him naturally. 

Hannibal’s smile deepened, and he reached out his strong arms to hug him tightly, patting him on the back. “Hmm, why are you so thin? Have you been busy with your studies?”

Hannibal was wearing a light gray casual shirt with a pleasant smell of aftershave. Wu Chenghe reciprocated the hug out of courtesy, but after a while, Hannibal didn’t let go. Wu Chenghe couldn’t help feeling a slight discomfort, his body tensing up. Without changing his expression, Hannibal took a deep breath, released him, and lightly kissed his left cheek, like an older father doting on his young son. He then patted his head and said, “You’ve grown taller, much more like a man now.”

Wu Chenghe still wasn’t used to European-style cheek kisses, so he subconsciously touched his face and smiled, “I’ve always been manly.”

Before Hannibal could say anything, Marlow chuckled and said, “Next time you say that, take a look in the mirror first.”

Wu Chenghe had expected him to mock him, so he came prepared this time. He took out a box of Portuguese egg tarts that Jin Xuan had made last night from his bag. “Do you still like the biscuits from last time? I brought you some egg tarts specifically. They’re delicious.”

Marlow was speechless. Egg tarts, with their high-fat content, were like poison to him! But the foodie caracal behind him rushed over as if he had seen a long-lost relative, circling around Wu Chenghe’s legs and occasionally reaching out with his front paws to try to reach the box in his hand.

“No… no need.” Marlow struggled to say. The caracal froze for a moment, then became furious. With a roar, it pounced back, its expression saying, “I’ll kill you if you dare refuse me,” as it bared its teeth and made threatening sounds.

Marlow was pushed back by its aggression. Unable to actually harm it, he stared back angrily, before reluctantly reaching out to take the box, trying to maintain a dignified expression. “Since you’ve brought it, I’ll reluctantly accept it.”

Wu Chenghe smiled kindly, holding onto the box, unwilling to let go. “No need to thank me.”

It was more of a reminder, but Marlow gritted his teeth and said, “Thank you!” 

Only then did Wu Chenghe let go, saying, “I said there’s no need. Why be so polite?”

Hannibal watched his two sons in their little struggle, unable to suppress his laughter. He said, “Charlie, don’t trouble Marlow too much. They have physical exams coming up, so they need to control their diet.” 

Having graduated from the Aston University’s Strategic Studies Department himself, he was well aware of the academic schedule.

Wu Chenghe smiled and sat down, saying, “It’s okay to eat a little less. It’s still good to look at even if you don’t eat.”

Marlow glared at him, trying to suppress the rebellion within him. Hannibal chuckled and released his black-and-chestnut eagle to help calm down Marlow’s hungry caracal, saying, “I’ve heard about what happened between you and Balon. You handled it well. But next time, no matter what you do, if it involves Charlie, you must communicate with him beforehand and not act on your own.”

Marlow reluctantly agreed, “I understand.”

Hannibal then turned to Wu Chenghe and said, “You’re too easygoing. In the future, if you encounter any problems, discuss them with Marlow more to avoid being taken advantage of. Although I am the Commander of the Voyager Army, I don’t need my son to swallow his pride to protect himself. Understand?”

Wu Chenghe had witnessed the Voyager Army’s tough style through Marlow. He obediently replied, “I understand.”

With that settled, Hannibal didn’t say much more about the matter. He asked about their studies and said to Marlow, “The dean is an old friend of mine. I talked to him about your studies, and he speaks highly of you.”

Marlow’s lips curled upwards in pride as he replied, “I’ll continue to work hard until the end of term.”

“Very good.” Hannibal patted him on the shoulder. He then turned to Wu Chenghe and asked, “As for you, I’m not familiar with your dean. I asked a few comrades, and they said they couldn’t get along with him. How is he towards you?”

Given Mu’s personality, he probably didn’t interact with many people in the medical field, let alone the military. Wu Chenghe replied, “He’s very good to me, very caring.”

“Ah, then I’ll just invite him to meet me directly,” Hannibal said. He called for his secretary and instructed, “Yuna, arrange a meeting with Dean Mu for me tonight. Let’s have dinner and chat.”

“Yes,” Yuna replied. 

Hannibal continued, “Also, greet him on behalf of the director of the Gabriel First Hospital and say we welcome him to come for academic exchange at Gabriel.”

“Understood.”

Wu Chenghe wasn’t optimistic about the invitation. Mu was known for being aloof and rarely attended social events other than gatherings of renowned experts in the field. Even the Commander of the Voyager Army might not be able to persuade him to come.

Surprisingly, a few minutes later, Yuna came back to report, “The meeting has been arranged. Dean Mu said he’ll be here in an hour.”

Wu Chenghe was extremely surprised, and even Marlow looked taken aback. Hannibal nodded and said, “Perfect timing. Let’s wait for him. You go and book a restaurant.”

“Okay.” Yuna paused and reminded him, “Commander, before Madam left, she sent a gift to Miss Lancer and asked if you wanted to invite her to dinner.”

“No need.” Hannibal’s expression darkened at the mention of his troublesome sister-in-law. “Having her there would probably ruin the mood for everyone. I’ll explain it to my wife later. Just have the security team send the gift to her and don’t bother with my regards.”

Yuna acknowledged and left. Hannibal then said to Wu Chenghe, “Charlie, I heard about the complaint she made about you. If she acts like that again, let me know, and I’ll have Lilith talk to her. Adult matters should be handled by adults. You don’t need to accommodate her excessively.”

Wu Chenghe didn’t really have any feelings towards his cousin. Regarding her, she was less threatening than even the Balons. He nonchalantly replied, “It’s nothing.”

Marlow couldn’t criticize his own cousin, but he was always dissatisfied with Miss Lancer. Hearing Wu Chenghe’s words, he snorted and said, “You’re a saint.”

Hannibal shot him a glance and said, “People are different. Charlie has a broad mind, which is his strength. People’s energy is limited, so don’t waste it on things that aren’t worth it. Marlow, in this respect, he’s better than you.” Hannibal knew Wu Chenghe’s stubbornness well. Some people might seem soft and obedient on the surface, willing to yield in everything, but in reality, they simply didn’t want to waste their energy on trivial matters. On matters of principle, they often held firmer than those who appeared strong on the surface.

Marlow was a little dissatisfied with Hannibal’s repeated praise of Wu Chenghe tonight, but he still humbly accepted his father’s teachings. “I understand.”

An hour later, Mu arrived as scheduled. He was still dressed in his signature black attire, with a black shirt, black trousers, and black leather shoes. The only splash of color was a dark blue tie.

Hannibal was completely surprised that the dean was so young. After a moment of hesitation, he shook hands with him and said, “Thank you for taking the time to come. Charlie said you’re very busy, so I was worried about disturbing your work.”

“I happened to have some time,” Mu said, unusually mild in his attitude, even with a rare smile at the corner of his mouth. “Thank you for the invitation, Commander.”

Hannibal looked at his face, momentarily dazed, and hesitated before saying, “Have we met before? Mr. Dean, why do I feel like I know you?”

Mu smiled but didn’t say anything. After a moment, Marlow looked at Wu Chenghe and said, “Why do I feel like you two look alike?”

Hannibal turned to Wu Chenghe, and suddenly it clicked. “That’s it! Charlie, you do look a bit like the Dean… Where are you from?”

“Really? It’s the first time someone’s said that,” Mu said, a barely noticeable chill flickering in the corner of his eye. “I grew up in the capital of Dunkirk and lived in York City before college.”

“Oh, Charlie was born in the Voyager Army. It must be a coincidence,” Hannibal said with a smile.

 

 

 

 

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