"My goal is to create a drink that tastes as good as an ordinary carbonated beverage and costs the same, but can also supplement brainpower!"
As Liu Chen said this, her face showed confidence and pride, her eyes sparkling. This was different from her usual mature adult demeanor, and it made He Long subconsciously believe that Liu Chen could achieve what she said.
As if!
"Medicinal ingredients that can supplement brainpower, even if I don't understand, I can guess that the price won't be cheap. And medicinal ingredients are medicinal ingredients. No matter what you add, they will still have a bitter taste. Drinks with a bitter taste won't be delicious."
After all, He Long was a professor in food research. He almost directly overturned Liu Chen's words. In his opinion, Liu Chen should still be down-to-earth and develop her beauty brand according to the current model.
Steady progress, just like his own food research over the years.
He Long frankly denied Liu Chen's idea, and then was secretly and hard pinched on the thigh by his wife, Zhen Yu, who was sitting beside him.
"Hiss... But! You're young! Your idea is very commendable! Right? Wife?"
Because the house was heated, Zhen Yu, who was nearing fifty, wore a long-sleeved lotus-root pink knitted sweater. Her face had little makeup, just a light pink lipstick, a recently popular color.
Her daughter, He Siyu, bought it with her allowance when they went shopping together. Zhen Yu had been using this lipstick recently. He Long, who initially thought the color was a bit too bright, praised his daughter's excellent taste as soon as he heard that the lipstick was bought by their daughter!
What a lipstick that is perfect for your mother!
At this moment, Zhen Yu gently smiled with her lips, which were painted with pink lipstick:
"I actually find it very interesting. Besides, Chenchen and the aunts are different from the merchants in our minds. Chenchen doesn't develop new products to make money! Auntie admires you!"
Liu Chen felt a little embarrassed when she heard this. You know, the profit margin of her pork jerky was staggeringly high!
"Not really. I have a slight idea now. Can using some medicinal herbs as a substitute achieve half the effect of that ancient prescription? So I was eager to find Teacher.
I want to borrow the laboratory for experiments to see if my idea can be realized soon."
After speaking, Liu Chen looked at Professor He Long expectantly.
He Long, however, pondered for a moment and frowned slightly:
"The laboratory originally allocated to me, I planned to lend it to Professor Huang in the first half of the year. But Professor Huang's project has made no progress for three years, so your matter is more urgent. It's just that I still need to find a reason to dismiss Professor Huang."
Hearing that Professor He Long had agreed to her request so directly, Liu Chen couldn't help but let out a small chirp of joy, and then quickly regained her composed adult demeanor under Professor He Long's surprised gaze.
"Teacher, I have an idea. You can be my supervisor for this experiment, and I want to make this experiment my graduation thesis."
"Hmm?"
He Long felt that he might really be old, otherwise, why would he think that Liu Chen, a freshman, was talking about graduation thesis?
Liu Chen saw Professor He Long's confusion and took the initiative to explain: "If there are no problems with the final exams this semester, I should skip to the third or fourth year next semester, so my graduation thesis should start now."
Liu Chen said her plan as if it were natural, but He Long and Zhen Yu were both stunned.
As a professor at Shuimu University, He Long was clearly aware of the normal academic pressure of Shuimu University students. Even with normal progress, many students were close to passing the line at the end of the semester.
To skip grades, one not only had to pass but also score above eighty percent on every exam.
In other words, to skip grades, Liu Chen would have to learn two years' worth of knowledge in one year, and also ensure that her grades were good enough.
If Liu Chen were simply a clever student, He Long and Zhen Yu might have just sighed and left it at that, but...
Everyone knew that Liu Chen's venture was more like attending university in her spare time from starting a business, rather than starting a business while in university.
Even so, Liu Chen still felt that attending school took up too much time and wanted to skip grades?!
If it weren't for the fact that her family and Liu Chen had been in contact for a long time, and they believed she was not the type of person to do things without confidence, they would have said she was treating her studies as a game!
After digesting this news, He Long took the initiative to say:
"Then I'll be your advisor for your graduation thesis? Supervising your experimental safety is also acceptable."
Thus, in less than an hour, Liu Chen accomplished the purpose of her visit.
But...
When she saw the pink lipstick on her aunt's lips, she couldn't help but take out two identical, unopened dusty rose lipsticks from her computer bag.
Seeing He Siyu's confused expression, Liu Chen explained:
"A friend advertised for their brand before and gave me several lipsticks of the same shade. I thought so many identical colors would be too much to wear.
Since I'm visiting today, if Siyu sister and auntie can help use them, you'll be helping me a lot!"
This reason was only believed by He Siyu, who didn't make many friends. When Liu Chen walked out of Teacher He's house, Aunt Zhen Yu held Liu Chen's hands and gently patted them:
"Good child, stop and rest when you are tired. Life is a long road, no need to rush."
"I understand, auntie. You should go in quickly. When this door opens, the warm air inside will escape."
-
When Liu Chen returned to the dormitory, she was still carrying a round insulated bucket. This was something Aunt Zhen Yu had insisted on giving her when she saw her off. After stuffing it in her hands, she immediately closed the anti-theft door without mercy, for fear that Liu Chen would return it.
Along the way, Liu Chen occasionally smelled the aroma coming from the insulated bucket, and she was sure it was stewed soup.
As she opened the dormitory door, the familiar scent of Master Kang's braised beef noodles from her past life wafted towards her. Her senior classmate Qin Cancan, whom she hadn't seen in a long time, was squatting by the coffee table in the living room, with a bucket of braised beef noodles being prepared in front of her.
Qin Cancan also looked up at the sound of the door opening. Her dazed gaze moved from Liu Chen's cheeks down to the insulated bucket in Liu Chen's hand.
Qin Cancan took a deep sniff and her eyes lit up.
"Wow! So fragrant! There's pickled radish!"
"Pickled radish? Really? I haven't even warmed it up. That's great, Cancan jie is here too. Let's eat together. I was still worried on the way back, it would be a waste if I couldn't finish it."
Upon hearing this, Qin Cancan quickly moved her instant noodles on the coffee table to the left, allowing Liu Chen to place the insulated bucket in the center of the coffee table.
She rotated the lid of the insulated bucket and opened it. As soon as it was opened, the aroma of pickled radish soup rushed out, instantly diluting the scent of braised beef noodles that had been dominating the room just moments before.
Qin Cancan, who was close by, couldn't help but swallow when she smelled the aroma.
Perhaps because the soup was still scalding hot when her aunt packed it, Liu Chen accidentally scalded herself with the steam under the lid when she opened it. The area from the tiger's mouth down on her left hand immediately felt a burning sensation.
By the time Liu Chen took out the bowls and chopsticks from her room, that burning area had already turned light pink on her fair hand.
However, Liu Chen really didn't have time to deal with it for the moment. She was already holding a bowl and making sounds of praise as she drank the pickled radish and old duck soup her aunt had given her.
"It's so delicious!" Liu Chen exclaimed as she finished a bowl of soup and exhaled hot air.
Qin Cancan, after finishing a bowl of soup, wished she could stick out her whole tongue and gasp.
"So spicy! So spicy! This pickled radish and old duck soup has chili in it!"
After saying this, Qin Cancan couldn't help but pick up the lukewarm soup from her braised beef noodles and drank it all, just to suppress the spiciness in her mouth.
Seeing Qin Cancan sweating profusely from the spiciness, Liu Chen even went back to her room to get a bottle of mineral water and handed it to her. Qin Cancan then held it as if it were a treasure and, holding the mineral water with both hands, began to gulp it down.
Seeing her like this, Liu Chen couldn't help but remind her: "Drink less. Swish it in your mouth and spit it out, it can also relieve spiciness. Otherwise, if you eat instant noodles, then old duck soup, and then cold water, you'll easily get diarrhea."
As it turned out, Liu Chen's worries were not unfounded. After attending the last day of her one-on-one class, Liu Chen opened her eyes and lay on the bed, reminiscing about the knowledge she had learned over the past month. She heard a "thump" sound from outside the room.
Liu Chen didn't even have time to change out of her pajamas before opening the door to see what had happened.
Then she saw Qin Cancan lying on the ground. Moreover, as she fell, she hit her head, and blood was seeping from the back of her head.
Seeing this, Liu Chen quickly called 120, then placed two lucky charms on Qin Cancan, and locked her dormitory door. When 120 took Qin Cancan away, Liu Chen also got into the car.
Looking at Qin Cancan, who had a simple bandage on her head and was lying on a stretcher, Liu Chen was puzzled. In her nearly thirty years of life in her previous world, she had never had to take anyone to the hospital. Now, less than a year into Shuimu University, she had sent two alumni to the hospital.
Before Liu Chen could figure it out, she saw Qin Cancan being pushed around for examinations. Finally, the doctor asked the patient's family to understand the situation.
Liu Chen, standing in the hallway, quickly ran towards the doctor, waving her hand as she ran: "Me! Me! I'm the patient's roommate. I called 120. How is Cancan jie?"
The doctor glanced at Liu Chen, who, because of the hospital's warmth, had unzipped her down jacket, revealing the pink plush pajamas underneath.
"Although the patient has bleeding in the back of her head, fortunately, there are no problems in her brain. However, the patient has acute appendicitis and needs to be arranged for an IV drip and hospitalization for surgery. Go to the front desk to pay."
Liu Chen took the stack of documents handed to her by a nurse. While shocked by Qin Cancan's acute appendicitis, she didn't forget to go downstairs to swipe her card to pay.
After the payment was made, Liu Chen sat by the bedside, watching the IV drip hanging on Qin Cancan's head. The doctor said that after this bag of fluid was finished, she could rest, and surgery was scheduled for 4 PM.
Perhaps because she was no longer in pain after the IV infusion, Qin Cancan's furrowed brow, which had been tense even in her sleep, had relaxed, and the corners of her mouth were slightly upturned. She must have been having a beautiful dream.
"Buzz buzz buzz..."
The sound of a mobile phone vibrating broke the quiet atmosphere of the ward. Under the reproachful gaze of the family member in the next bed, Liu Chen had no choice but to disregard privacy and take out the vibrating phone from Qin Cancan's jacket pocket.
Upon taking it out, Liu Chen chuckled. The screen clearly displayed the words "Advisor Jiang Demin."
Holding the phone, Liu Chen walked to the corridor outside the door and answered the call.
Before Liu Chen could even ask for leave for senior classmate Qin Cancan, she heard a torrent of scolding from the other end of the phone.
"You were supposed to be in the lab at 5 AM today, and it's already this late! Did you get hit by a car and become paralyzed and can't crawl over?!
Let me tell you, get to the lab immediately! To compensate for the project delay caused by you, you'll have to invest five hundred yuan in the experimental project this month!"
Hearing this, Liu Chen had to interrupt Jiang Demin's attempt to extort money by using this as an excuse.
"Teacher Jiang Demin, I am senior classmate Qin Cancan's roommate. Senior classmate Qin Cancan was found unconscious in the dormitory this morning, and I called 120 to bring her to the hospital.
She was diagnosed with acute appendicitis and concussion. She is currently lying in bed receiving an IV drip and will have surgery in the afternoon. Since senior sister is not awake, I can only ask for leave on her behalf."
Liu Chen's voice was clear and loud, and Jiang Demin on the other end of the phone heard it clearly. Liu Chen thought that asking for leave shouldn't be difficult, as Jiang Demin was just greedy. However, she heard Jiang Demin say on the phone:
"What acute appendicitis! It's just a minor ailment! Prescribe some anti-inflammatory drugs and painkillers! What surgery?! Neglecting important experiments for a minor problem and rushing to the hospital!
Tell her to get back here!"
Before he could finish speaking, Liu Chen directly hung up the phone.
"What trash."
Jiang Demin wouldn't be able to cause trouble for much longer anyway. It was a good opportunity for senior classmate Qin Cancan to rest and recover her body, which had been depleted by staying up late, during her surgery and recovery period.
Liu Chen reckoned that by the time Qin Cancan was discharged, she would probably receive news of her doctoral supervisor being arrested.
After hanging up the phone, Liu Chen walked back to the ward. Jiang Demin, whose call had been hung up, seemed to have finally realized that this roommate of Qin Cancan had dared to hang up his phone!
Unacceptable! Disrespectful to elders!
He must call back and scold her severely on behalf of her parents, making her realize that impulsiveness is useless in this society!
Liu Chen looked at the vibrating phone in her hand and decided to press and hold the power button to turn off the long-lasting Nokia phone. Then she sat back down by senior classmate Qin Cancan's bedside.
As soon as she sat down, Qin Cancan opened her eyes. Perhaps because she had slept enough, Liu Chen felt that senior classmate Qin Cancan's eyes no longer looked so dull.
However, upon seeing the blue sky and white clouds outside the window, her eyes widened and she cried out:
"Wow! It's over, the sky is already bright! That bald old man Jiang Demin will definitely fine me again!"
After saying this, Qin Cancan realized that she had spoken her mind and looked at Liu Chen, who was sitting by the bed, a little embarrassed.
Liu Chen nodded affirmatively:
"He only has two hairs on his head. I think he should be called 'old bald head,' not 'cricket'."
Qin Cancan was stunned for a moment and then laughed.
Under the warm winter sun, the two girls laughed more brilliantly than the fresh flowers on the bedside cabinet.