After that incident ended, Huang Youdao went to a health school and became a qualified doctor after graduation. He was very diligent, and his medical skills became increasingly sophisticated. However, for many years, Huang Youdao never gave up on becoming a "demon" like Tao Yue. But that kind of thing became a dream. As he grew older, Huang Youdao began to understand Mr. Wende’s words; he didn't have the talent.
In 1976, Huang Youdao became the busiest chief physician. During work hours, the line of patients waiting for registration was like a long dragon every day. He wouldn't be able to finish his shift without working overtime for four hours. After work, his colleagues would also advise him that life couldn't be lived alone and that he should find a wife.
Huang Youdao, who was about to turn forty, was still a sought-after bachelor. He had never been married, and it was well known that he was busy with work and study most of the time, and he was kind-hearted. Many people were willing to introduce him to dates—beautiful, young, with children, rich... Each time, Huang Youdao would just smile and let it pass. Eventually, his colleagues even wondered if he was gay.
Huang Youdao himself didn't know, but he was simply not interested in women. He couldn't stop thinking about Tao Yue and wanted to become a "demon" like her. However, Huang Youdao knew better than anyone that with his intelligence, he would never become a "demon."
Human intelligence is generally measured by IQ. The last time Huang Youdao went abroad for training, he specifically had his IQ tested at an authoritative institution. His IQ was 105, classifying him as a smart person.
The average human IQ is 100. People with an IQ of 110 are already considered very intelligent.
Judging from Tao Yue's abilities back then, Huang Youdao believed Tao Yue had the potential of a chess player, so Tao Yue's IQ should be between 130 and 135.
These numbers might be what Mr. Wende referred to as talent.
...
Innate qualities are insurmountable obstacles that a person cannot overcome in a lifetime. Huang Youdao knew he couldn't achieve it, yet he persisted relentlessly. He trained his memory and used acupuncture to improve his brain's capabilities. However, his acupuncture skills didn't improve his IQ; instead, they unexpectedly cured some patients, including those with depression, a condition rarely even named in China at the time.
Thus, Huang Youdao, with a mixture of amusement and exasperation, became a model of integrated traditional Chinese and Western medicine at their hospital and was granted the title of professor, being sent abroad for exchange and study. This exchange program was initiated by a university professor who had won an outstanding scientific contribution award.
At the time, Huang Youdao attended as a professor of medicine but studied as a student. It was also during this period that he encountered the split-brain theory, which would later win a Nobel Prize. Huang Youdao was stunned and became completely immersed in it.
The differentiation and development of biological embryos always begin from a single cell. In higher animals, which cells will form bones and which will become blood is determined by heredity.
In other words, what kind of person a person will become in the future is already defined by their genes.
However, this discussion and study aimed to prove that the nervous system is determined by innate structures and has a profound influence on behavior, which cannot be entirely controlled by environment and experience. This does not mean that environment and learning are unimportant. If Li Bai had grown up in England, he would not have written "Quiet Night Thought" in English. Conversely, someone else, even with the same experiences and cultural background as Li Bai, might not be able to compose even a simple doggerel.
Huang Youdao thought of himself. His knowledge had long surpassed Tao Yue's from back then, yet why couldn't he make judgments as accurate as Tao Yue's? This seemed to confirm the foreign professor's words—some things are indeed determined by innate factors. But if you understood the role of the individual, perhaps it would open up a different line of thinking. After all, according to the foreign professor's theory, a body could have two souls: one living, and the other dormant.
If the two selves could be merged into one, then what happened next might lead to miracles.
...
After returning to China, Huang Youdao dedicated himself to studying this field. His medical skills increased greatly, and he resolved many neurological diseases, including encephalitis, epilepsy, paralysis after poisoning, and congenital genetic defects.
Within half a year, his fifty-square-meter apartment was covered with awards and banners. Every day, he would look at the banners, light a cigarette, and finally make a decision. He pierced the septum between his left and right brain with a needle. When he pulled the needle out, he felt dizzy. He knew he was finished. He hadn't become smarter; he might even become an idiot.
The next day, while seeing patients, Huang Youdao collapsed in front of one. A doctor treating encephalitis contracted an intracranial infection—it sounded like a joke. However, the hospital was not prepared to give up on Huang Youdao. They requested instructions from higher authorities, seeking more expert consultations and better treatment plans. The leadership approved, stating that this expert in his field must be preserved at all costs.
Miraculously, Huang Youdao woke up during treatment. At that time, the entire medical community rejoiced, believing they had conquered science through their own efforts. There were over a hundred doctors involved in the consultation, thirty from traditional Chinese medicine and sixty from Western medicine.
They would devise a plan every day, sparing no effort to save him. In the end, Huang Youdao woke up, but no one knew which plan had worked, or whether it was traditional Chinese medicine or Western medicine that had succeeded.
Finally, all the doctors involved in the treatment stood together for a photograph, all beaming. They had successfully treated a patient with an intracranial infection and ensured his well-being. Perhaps even the best doctors in the world could not have achieved this, and that was enough.
...
Huang Youdao recovered quickly. His physical indicators were stable, and he ate well. He even felt a sublimation in his brain. Huang Youdao didn't know what it was, and he didn't care. He felt that after this experience, he had come to terms with things and wouldn't foolishly chase after "demons" anymore. He was only forty years old; it wasn't too late to get married and have children.
During the subsequent treatment, Huang Youdao was very calm. He had changed and was no longer as aggressive, content to recover and re-enter society. While Huang Youdao was recuperating in the hospital, one of his assistants came to ask some questions about medical protocols. Data that previously required him to check references, he now answered off the top of his head, as if he had seen the data hundreds of times and had it memorized.
However, this memory was not in the ordinary brain region. Now, a nerve in his brain seemed to be able to communicate with this region.
...
This situation led Huang Youdao to ponder. Had he broken through genetic limitations?
This was impossible.
It was unreasonable.
Therefore, Huang Youdao applied for an IQ test. The doctor responsible for the test was extremely cautious. An intracranial infection, a hundred experts working tirelessly to devise treatment plans. If this test proved Huang Youdao's IQ had deteriorated, he would be a sinner to the entire medical community.
The doctor tested him with extreme trepidation, afraid that any mistake would lead to dire consequences. But upon seeing the results, the doctor breathed a sigh of relief and said with a smile, "Professor Huang, your IQ is fine. It's 122. No wonder you've achieved such results. An IQ of 122 is not something ordinary people possess."
"122?"
"Yes, is it too low? What was it before?"
An IQ of 122 falls into the exceptionally gifted category. Given the complex illnesses Huang Youdao had cured, the doctor believed his IQ matched. However, seeing Huang Youdao's doubtful expression, he became a little flustered and quickly asked, "Where did you test it?"
"Abroad."
"We use the same method here and abroad."
"Could there be an error?"
"No, such errors only fluctuate within a certain range. 122 and 105 are for two different types of people; such an error is impossible."
Huang Youdao pursed his lips, thinking, could it be related to piercing his brain with the needle? He couldn't understand it. Wouldn't that cause intracranial damage and an internal infection? How could it increase IQ?
"Can you test me again, please?"
"Yes, yes!"
The test was repeated several times, fluctuating between 120 and 132. This incident later spread throughout the hospital; Huang Youdao was considered highly intelligent and destined to become a future miracle in the medical field.
...
After being discharged from the hospital, Huang Youdao developed a different perspective on the laws of development, which enhanced his imagination and creativity. He then secretly tested himself again using the borrowed IQ testing method: 139! His IQ was even higher than when he was in the hospital, reaching the level of a top chess player.
Vaguely, Huang Youdao sensed that his IQ was still growing. Could it go even higher?
Until one day, when he went to assist another hospital, he discovered something suspicious from the information provided by that hospital. A doctor in the cardiology and neurology department there seemed to be experimenting on patients.
Because those treatments were not standard therapeutic methods but rather the verification of certain theories. In other words, the doctor, Duan Shan, in the cardiology and neurology department, was illegally experimenting on patients.