Xia Sanghuan calmed down for a while. After the heat on her face completely subsided, she stood up from the ground.
She hesitated for a moment between taking a shower and getting her bag, but finally chose to take a shower first.
Not to mention whether Second Brother was still working in the study at the moment, she herself couldn't stand the dust on her body.
She grabbed her bath towel and change of clothes and took a careful shower.
To make sure there would be no unpleasant odor on her body, she even used body wash twice.
By the time she finished showering and came out, it was almost eleven o'clock.
Second Brother should have gone back to his bedroom to sleep by now, right?
Thinking this, she walked in the direction of the study.
It wasn't that she was overly suspicious. She was just afraid of being tricked by Leng Wanqing.
Previously, it could be regarded as a young girl's competitiveness and pride leading to some petty squabbles with her.
But if Leng Wanqing really found some evidence this time, it would be hard to resolve.
When she reached the door, she found that the study door was ajar, and a faint light was coming from inside.
Her heart skipped a beat.
Who would still be here at this late hour?
Could it be that her suspicion was really right?
She unconsciously slowed down her steps and gently moved to the door, peeping inside through the crack.
However, the scene she feared did not appear.
Her bag was lying quietly on the shelf near the door, and the light source came from a desk lamp on the desk.
There was a large French window in the study for lighting, and there was a person standing beside it at the moment.
It was Leng Chuanjin.
He had his back to the door, his hands clasped behind his back, looking out at the garden through the French window.
Due to the angle, most of his face was hidden in the darkness, making it hard to see his features clearly.
His thin lips were tightly pursed. No one knew what he was thinking.
Xia Sanghuan hesitated at the door for a while. She was still worried about the things in her bag.
Moreover, the herbs needed to be taken out and stored. If they were kept in the bag all the time, she wasn't sure if they would still be usable tomorrow.
After much weighing, she still knocked on the door.
"Come in."
The man's voice carried a hint of displeasure and fatigue, which made one's back go cold.
After seeing that it was Xia Sanghuan, his voice and expression softened instantly.
"Why aren't you sleeping so late?"
He asked softly, in a completely different tone from before.
"I'm here to get my bag."
The girl pointed somewhat awkwardly at the dirty backpack on the ground.
Although she wasn't overly concerned about her appearance, she still didn't want to make a fool of herself in front of the person she liked.
He looked down at the bag and said, "Let me find someone to clean it tomorrow and then send it to you."
"Taking it back now might expose you to some bacteria."
"It's okay, Second Brother. A little bacteria won't make me sick."
"Moreover, if I don't take out the herbs in it, I'm afraid they'll get crushed."
"By the way, why aren't you sleeping, Second Brother?"
To prevent him from dwelling on her backpack, she quickly changed the subject.
Leng Chuanjin was silent for a moment, then said, "I can't sleep."
Hearing this, Xia Sanghuan frowned.
"Didn't the medicine work?"
He shook his head.
"It worked at first, but I don't know why. I've been having more and more trouble sleeping these days."
"Then haven't you gone to the hospital to have a look?"
Hearing the girl's question, he gave a calm smile.
"There's no need. I've just been under a lot of pressure recently."
"I used to have trouble sleeping whenever I was under a lot of pressure."
His expression was calm, but his words made her heart ache.
It was hard to imagine what he had to face every day that he couldn't even get a good night's sleep.
"Second Brother, do you want me to feel your pulse again?
"I'm quite good at this."
"Don't worry about it."
Leng Chuanjin refused.
"Do you need me to help you carry your bag back?"
Looking at his somewhat haggard face, she shook her head.
"Then I'll go back first. Remember to go to bed early."
He gave her one last reminder, then pushed open the door and left.
It seemed that he didn't really want to talk to her much about this.
Realizing this, she felt a little disappointed.
Did he not trust her medical skills?
But prying wasn't her style. If Second Brother didn't want to talk about it, she'd wait until he was willing to.
She dragged the bag back to her room—she just couldn't bring herself to carry it because it was so dirty.
After repeatedly checking that nothing in the bag was missing, she took out the herbs she had picked and simply stored them on the floor.
Thankfully, only a few were crushed by the books. Most of them were still intact.
She put the herbs in a box, planning to take them to the research lab the next day.
When she arrived at the research lab the next day, she took the herbs and books to Professor He.
Professor He was flipping through an ancient book while singing its praises.
"I've never seen these books on the market. Where did you get them, Sanghuan?"
Xia Sanghuan casually told a lie.
"Didn't I tell you? There's an old Chinese doctor in our village.
"I went back to ask him for them this time.
"Since he's retired, he doesn't need these books anymore, so he gave them to me."
The books contained some information about the Black-Bone Spiritual Treasure, not much, but it was better than their current state of running around like headless chickens.
They first put the herbs in a machine to dry them and stored them for future use.
Then they started to read the books she had brought back separately.
The books weren't very thick, but the printed words were very small, and there were also some classical Chinese and rare characters, which made reading a bit difficult.
To improve efficiency, they decided to first extract the parts that mentioned the Black-Bone Spiritual Treasure and study those parts first.
However, the parts that mentioned the spiritual treasure were mostly written in classical Chinese.
Xia Sanghuan read until her head hurt and began to doubt if she had ever seen these things when she was a child.
But even if she had, she probably would have forgotten most of it. After all, it was difficult enough to understand classical Chinese, let alone remember it.
The two of them worked for a whole morning and finally managed to make some sense of the books.
The reason why the Black-Bone Spiritual Treasure could treat cancer was that its components could repair mutated and damaged cells, thus completely eradicating cancer.
"But the root cause of Tree Man Syndrome is gene mutation. If we use the Black-Bone Spiritual Treasure..."
Professor He was taking notes while muttering to himself.
"Then we can use the components of the spiritual treasure while performing gene repair surgery as an auxiliary.
"We must combine traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine. Only in this way can we achieve twice the result with half the effort and completely eradicate Tree Man Syndrome."
Xia Sanghuan added from the side.
Professor He listened and nodded in satisfaction.