At 9:00 a.m. on Monday, inside the administrative building of the Affiliated Hospital.

The hospital leadership’s weekly routine meeting was held on time in the small conference room on the seventh floor. As per standard practice, the attending leaders first gave their reports and summaries on the completion of last week’s major tasks. After this agenda item was finished, Chen Yu took the floor to give a detailed briefing on the targeted blacklisting of the Affiliated Hospital by Jingcheng’s medical journals.

“As of this morning, over the past three weeks, the data I have received shows that nineteen graduate students and young doctors have had their papers returned, and forty-one have been rejected,” she stated. “These numbers are clearly abnormal. The blacklisting is undoubtedly real.”

Party Secretary Liu Jin, President Hou Jianfeng, Vice President of Medical Affairs Liang Qing, and Disciplinary Inspection Commission Secretary Han Xianghong all looked furious upon hearing Chen Yu’s briefing.

“This is outrageous!” Hou Jianfeng rebuked angrily. “Previously, due to regional biases, they were clearly stricter with the papers submitted by our hospital. Now, they’ve blatantly initiated a blacklist. They have completely lost the spirit of science.”

“Secretary, we cannot simply let this go this time,” Liang Qing chimed in with righteous indignation. “Exactly. We must fight back against this and make them understand the severe consequences.”

Liu Jin’s gaze slowly swept over the attendees before he spoke in a deep voice. “Naturally, we must respond to this matter seriously. However, we need to prioritize. Mr. Chen, what proposals do you have regarding the affected graduate students and young doctors?”

Chen Yu pondered for a moment before replying, “The other party will definitely not admit to something like this, and it wouldn’t be appropriate for us to immediately make a mountain out of a molehill with direct accusations. I suggest we first issue an informal notice reminding our hospital’s graduate students and young doctors that it is best not to submit to Jingcheng’s medical journals for the time being.

“For papers that were accepted and then returned, I propose setting up an expert panel to review them. We can then recommend the well-evaluated papers to friendly editors at other medical journals, hoping to get them published as soon as possible so as not to affect their annual excellence evaluations, graduation assessments, and professional title evaluations.”

Pausing for a moment, she continued, “The most fundamental solution is to avoid being controlled by others. Due to historical reasons, our hospital has never had our own core medical journal, which forces our staff to submit their papers externally. Applying to start our own academic journal now would be extremely difficult, nearly impossible. But I have a proposal…”

Meeting everyone’s gaze, Chen Yu said, “We should strive to change the Binhai University Medical Journal from a bimonthly publication to a monthly one. With the size and research output of our Affiliated Hospital and medical school, it would be enough to sustain a monthly journal without a noticeable decline in paper quality.”

She added, “Thanks to Mr. Yan’s papers in the last three issues of the medical journal, its domestic and international impact factors have surged by more than double.”

Liu Jin nodded in approval. “Mr. Chen’s proposal is very detailed and thoughtful, taking both short-term and long-term aspects into consideration. Very good! Do the other comrades have anything to add?”

Liang Qing spoke up. “I’ve also heard a bit about the rectifications within Jingcheng’s medical circles. I hear the measures were quite drastic; a batch of people was replaced, and many people’s interests were touched. It could be said that this rectification started because of Mr. Yan. It’s understandable that they hold a grudge against us and are taking out their anger on us. I just didn’t expect them to retaliate against us in such an extremely unprofessional manner.”

Looking at Liu Jin, Liang Qing suggested tentatively, “Secretary, Mr. Yan is highly regarded by the higher-ups. Why not have him report this? If a top leader up there gives an order, the problem might just be easily solved.”

Liu Jin pondered for a moment before replying, “The new batch of people brought in during this rectification of Jingcheng’s medical circles are still insiders to us. You could say it’s just old wine in new bottles. If we let Feifan go complain again and get another batch replaced, it will still be the same. In fact, it would only further exacerbate the conflict between both sides.”

Sighing softly, Liu Jin said, “Let’s communicate privately first and see if we can resolve this properly. After all, they have absolutely no justification for this blacklisting, and they probably wouldn’t want to blow things out of proportion either.”

Hou Jianfeng expressed his concern. “Secretary, even if they agree verbally, the de facto blacklisting through discrimination and excessive strictness will still exist, and perhaps persist for a long time.”

Liu Jin gave a bitter smile. “This problem would still exist even if they replaced the people over there. It might even become more severe. It’s practically an unsolvable issue. Our only countermeasure for now is to steer clear of them, submit our papers to other medical journals, and actively work with the medical school to get the medical journal changed to a monthly publication…”

While the hospital leaders were actively discussing countermeasures for the blacklisting, Yan Feifan was currently studying in the cardiothoracic surgery department.

Today, he hadn’t gone to observe and learn from surgeries. Instead, he was in Dr. Gu’s office, receiving the doctor’s instruction. The topic was heart transplantation under various special circumstances—for instance, how to transplant a large adult heart into the small chest cavity of a youth. They also covered other special situations that might arise during the heart transplantation process.

Dr. Gu had made a lot of preparations for today’s theoretical lesson. The video demonstration materials alone were edited from no fewer than twenty surgery videos. However, his meticulously prepared lesson hadn’t even reached the halfway mark before it was derailed by a sudden, whimsical question from Yan Feifan.

“The greatest risk in organ transplantation comes from acute and chronic rejection. Although the occurrence of rejection has no obvious positive correlation with the size or quantity of the transplanted organs, the more of one’s own organs left behind, the better the situation,” Yan Feifan said, pointing at an explanted, deformed heart on the high-definition screen. “Teacher, look at this heart. Although it is severely deformed, its left atrium and left ventricle are still relatively healthy. Is it possible to leave this half of the heart and just splice it together with the transplanted half?”

This question made Gu Lin laugh in exasperation. “Splicing a heart? You sure dare to dream! Yan, do you even know how difficult such a surgery would be? How high the risks are?”

Yan Feifan chuckled. “Teacher, of course I know that the surgical difficulty of doing this is much higher—even many times higher—than transplanting a whole heart. But the possibility exists. The surgical conditions today are unimaginably better than when heart transplantation was first invented. If surgeons back then dared to dream of heart transplants, why shouldn’t we dare to dream of heart splicing today?

“With today’s medical advancements, progress in many situations is made step by step through trial and error. Daring to dream and daring to act is the first step to success!”

These words made Gu Lin pause involuntarily, falling into deep thought.

Yan Feifan continued to entice him, “If a heart splicing surgery is successful, it would definitely be of great benefit in quickly restoring heart function and reducing the probability and severity of rejection. Teacher, we can experiment on lab pigs first. Even if it fails, there won’t be much of a loss. Proving that this path is a dead end is also a kind of success in itself, and it might even bring inspiration and enlightenment to others…”

Looking at Yan Feifan speaking with such fervor and assurance, a smile appeared on Gu Lin’s face.

“Yan, you’re right! Only by daring to dream and act can we have the possibility of success. I shouldn’t take it for granted that this path is a dead end. If our predecessors from over fifty years ago could invent heart transplantation under such poor conditions, why shouldn’t we dare to try heart splicing? Let’s study the specific feasibility first, and then go find those old guys to discuss it together…”

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