357: Chapter 357 We Can't Wait Any Longer

Su Mingyuan did not remember how he walked out of the third-floor conference room.

He remembered saying "Thank you, everyone," then standing up, walking to the door, and pushing it open.

He remembered a nurse passing by in the hallway pushing a medicine cart, the wheels creaking.

He remembered the "Down" button at the elevator; he pressed it once, then pressed it again.

The elevator arrived.

He walked inside.

The first-floor lobby.

He stepped out of the elevator, walked over to the gray benches in the center of the lobby, and sat down.

He sat there for five minutes.

Academician Zhang Chengzhi's face remained before his eyes.

That hand, clenched into a fist, with skin so thin the blue veins were visible, remained before his eyes.

The phrase "When they knelt, in their eyes—" kept echoing in his mind.

Academician Zhang Chengzhi had not finished that sentence.

But Su Mingyuan knew what the second half of that sentence was.

It was expectation.

It was the same expectation as the one the old man had just described: "the look every patient gives him when lying on the bed."

The only difference was—the patients expected "Doctor, please find a way."

While the family members who knelt expected "Doctor, let me die in his place."

Su Mingyuan sat on the bench.

He knew there was a very clear plan before him.

This plan had been in his mind for half a year.

Phase One: Stabilize the Yaowu World completely.

Complete Dawn City, finish the second phase of relocation, form the Spirit Armor troops, and make the Spiritual Qi concentration and Cultivate speed in the Yaowu World controllable.

—Estimated at ten months.

Phase Two: Scale up Medicinal Pill production capacity and the Immortal Cultivation System in the Yaowu World.

Turn Alchemists like Sun Liang from one into a thousand, achieve stable mass production of basic Medicinal Pills like rejuvenation pill and ningshen pill, and complete the digitization and localization of various Pill Formulas.

—Estimated at one year.

Phase Three: Establish the first batch of "Immortal Cultivation Hospitals" in the Main World, Daxia.

Start by targeting cancer, cerebrovascular diseases, and the nervous System.

Pilot in Beijing, Hujiang, and Yangcheng first, then expand nationwide.

—Estimated at one and a half years.

Three years.

He had reserved three years for this plan.

This three-year plan was very clear in his mind.

Every step had a reason, every step had resource constraints, and every step corresponded to who should do what.

This was what a qualified strategic plan should look like.

But now, as he sat in the lobby, this plan began to slowly collapse in his mind.

Logically, there was no problem, but emotionally, there was.

Daxia had 1.4 billion people.

Over three million people died of cancer every year.

Over two million people died of cerebrovascular accidents every year.

Over one million people died every year from various intractable diseases that modern medicine was temporarily powerless against.

Added together—six million per year.

Every day—nearly sixteen thousand people.

Every hour—nearly six hundred and eighty people.

Su Mingyuan sat on the bench, his fingers twitching unconsciously on his knees.

From the time he walked into that conference room until he was sitting here now—about an hour and a half.

In an hour and a half, one thousand Daxia people had died.

Of these one thousand people, how many could have been saved by the Medicinal Pills in his hands?

He did not know.

But he knew that if the Medicinal Pills of the cultivators were widely popularized, these people would not have to die and could live well.

Su Mingyuan stood up from the bench and took out his encrypted communicator from his pocket.

"Old Tao."

"Initiate the 'Guixu · Medical Canon' project."

"Medicinal Pill System: digitization, localization, and scaling."

"Within one week, I want to see the pilot plan for the first batch of Immortal Cultivation Hospitals."

He sent it out.

Thirty seconds.

Tao Zhe did not reply.

Forty seconds.

Tao Zhe did not reply.

Tao Zhe was the one person who was online twenty-four hours a day and would reply to any message within fifteen seconds.

This time, a minute had passed.

Su Mingyuan knew what Tao Zhe was thinking on the other end.

Tao Zhe must have received it.

Tao Zhe must have seen it.

Tao Zhe must have been stunned on the other end.

Because the "Guixu · Medical Canon" project—was a concept the two of them had discussed privately three months ago.

The conclusion of that discussion was:

"Let's talk about it after at least three years."

"Doing it now will disrupt the entire strategic pace."

"Medicinal Pill production capacity is insufficient, there aren't enough Alchemists, and the training System for Immortal Cultivation doctors is insufficient. Doing it now would be a failure, just messing around."

That was what Su Mingyuan himself had said back then.

And now, it was Su Mingyuan himself who was overturning it.

One minute and forty seconds.

Tao Zhe only replied with one sentence.

"Understood, I will arrange for people to do it immediately."

Tao Zhe did not ask why.

Tao Zhe did not say, "Group Leader, didn't we agree on three years from now?"

Tao Zhe also did not say, "The timing is not mature to push this now."

Tao Zhe only said "Understood."

Because Tao Zhe understood Su Mingyuan.

Su Mingyuan was not a person who would emotionally overturn his own plans.

If Su Mingyuan suddenly overturned a three-year plan in one morning—it must be because he saw something that made this plan untenable in his heart.

Tao Zhe did not need to know what that thing was.

Tao Zhe only needed to know—this plan had changed.

Tao Zhe immediately sent a second message from the other end.

"Guixu · Medical Canon initiated immediately."

"In one week, I will give you the first version of the project advancement framework."

Su Mingyuan looked at this message.

He wanted to say "Thank you for your hard work."

But what he typed out was another sentence.

"Old Tao."

"If we speed up our actions by one day, our compatriots will suffer one day less."

Three seconds.

Tao Zhe replied.

"Understood."

Su Mingyuan put away the communicator.

He looked up at the row of ceiling fans in the hospital lobby—one or two were on in the spring lobby, spinning very slowly.

He stood in the lobby for a while, then walked toward the elevator.

The twelfth floor.

When Su Mingyuan returned to the entrance of the intensive care ward, Sun Liang was already standing outside waiting for him.

Sun Liang was holding an empty teacup; it looked like he had just gone downstairs to get water.

Seeing Su Mingyuan return, Sun Liang placed the teacup on the corridor windowsill.

"Group Leader Su."

"Hmm."

"Uncle is asleep now," Sun Liang lowered his voice, "The medicinal power of the rejuvenation pill is still circulating in his body, and it is estimated to last until tonight. Sleeping is a good thing for him; it allows him to absorb the medicinal power of the rejuvenation pill to the greatest extent."

Su Mingyuan nodded.

He took the white porcelain bottle out of his jacket's inner pocket.

The bottle was still the same one.

It was very light, almost weightless.

The wax seal on the bottle opening was still unbroken—he had sat in the lobby downstairs for so long, and this bottle had been in his chest's inner pocket the whole time.

He handed the bottle to Sun Liang.

"Master Sun."

"Hmm?"

"For Mother, can it be used now?"

Sun Liang took the bottle and weighed it in his hand.

"It can be used now."

Su Mingyuan took a deep breath.

"Then use it."