Accepting an Interview

"Alright, standard questions." Song He scanned through them.

Xiang Xiaotong typed a reply, and the reporter immediately responded with an 'OK' emoji.

Finally, the live stream showed a picture of a dignified and elegant female reporter.

"Let's go in too," Song He said.

Xiang Xiaotong typed again, and the computer camera turned on, showing both of them in the live stream.

"Welcome, viewers, to the Nobel Prize interview live stream! We already have 5 million viewers, and the number is still rising!" the reporter said cheerfully. "Let's warmly welcome this year's Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine winners, Teacher Song He and Teacher Xiang Xiaotong!"

"Thank you! Welcome, everyone!" Xiang Xiaotong said with a bright smile.

Song He also nodded. "Welcome, everyone!"

"First of all, congratulations to both of you for winning the Nobel Prize!" the reporter said with a smile. "Did you expect to win the Nobel Prize beforehand? Is tonight's result a surprise or something you anticipated?"

Song He and Xiang Xiaotong looked at each other and said at the same time, "You go first."

"Should I go first?" they said in unison again.

They both laughed, and Song He decisively made the decision. "You go first, then I'll go."

"Okay." Xiang Xiaotong nodded and looked seriously at the camera. "I was personally quite surprised, not surprised about winning the award, but surprised about the reason for winning."

"This time, it's in recognition of your new discoveries in the field of brain nerves regarding the neuropeptide transmission network," the reporter said. "Why do you find this reason surprising?"

"Because this achievement is too small!" Xiang Xiaotong said. "I was stunned when I first saw it, and it took me a long time to react."

"This achievement was something we casually did in the laboratory several years ago in a week, an insignificant little discovery. We just casually published it in Cell, and we never thought it could win a Nobel Prize. We just treated it as an ordinary article."

"So I'm a bit strange, we've published bigger achievements, why would they give the award for this small achievement?" Xiang Xiaotong said with a smile.

"I see!" the reporter said with a smile. "So is it possible that you two will win the Nobel Prize a second time in the future? After all, you have even greater achievements."

"One is enough, there's no point in winning more," Xiang Xiaotong said with a smile.

"As far as I know, not all Nobel Prize achievements are major achievements that require a lot of effort. Some are made easily in a short period of time," the reporter said, clearly having done her homework. "For example, Koichi Tanaka was just a small employee of a company, responsible for electrical engineering research. His boss casually gave him an instrument for measuring the mass of biological macromolecules and asked him to do it. He could only learn from scratch, learning haphazardly and biting the bullet."

"The general consensus at the time was that laser measurement could not be used on compounds with a molecular weight limit of 1000, but Koichi Tanaka didn't know that and still chose to bombard the compound with a laser. Due to a mistake, he accidentally separated out a compound with a molecular weight of more than 1000, coincidentally solving a world problem."

"I've heard of it." Xiang Xiaotong nodded. "After Koichi Tanaka solved this problem, he didn't think it was a big deal. He took the company bonus and went on with his work, still diligently working as a small employee. Later, a professor accidentally found out and suggested that he write a paper about it. He wrote it, but didn't take it seriously. Many years later, he almost forgot about it, and then suddenly won the Nobel Prize."

"Yes, after Koichi Tanaka won the Nobel Prize, a reporter called him to congratulate him on winning the award. He couldn't understand English and hung up the phone, thinking it was some kind of sales call," the reporter said with a smile. "So the fact that you two won the Nobel Prize for an achievement made in a short period of time will also become a legend in the history of the Nobel Prize!"

"Teacher Song's feelings about winning the award?" the reporter asked again.

"I am personally quite surprised," Song He said. "I'm not surprised that she and I could win the Nobel Prize. Not to be immodest, our level is here. What I'm mainly surprised about is the age."

"The vast majority of Nobel Prizes are awarded for achievements from thirty or forty years ago, and the winners are all old men and women. There has always been a rumor in the academic world that the first secret to winning the Nobel Prize is to maintain good health, to live long enough. Many people with high academic achievements missed the Nobel Prize because they died too early and didn't get to the front of the line."

"So I always thought I would have to wait twenty or thirty years, or at least ten or eight years, before suddenly winning an award. I didn't expect to win it this year," Song He explained. "The Nobel Prize jumped the line for me, and I don't understand why, but of course I'm quite happy."

"He should be the youngest Nobel Laureate in history," Xiang Xiaotong pointed at Song He.

"Is that so?" the reporter said in surprise. "Teacher Song doesn't seem to like to show his face, and the outside world knows very little about you, not even your age. Even when the award was announced, there wasn't even a photo of you."

"I'm not too young, I can only say I'm still okay," Song He said. "I really don't like to show my face, especially after winning the Nobel Prize, I don't want to show my face even more. It will bring a lot of trouble to my life, and I might be recognized on the street."

"I see, Teacher Song He likes to keep a low profile," the reporter said.

"Yes, keep a low profile," Song He nodded.

"Teacher Xiang just mentioned that this award-winning achievement was a small achievement made a few years ago. Do you have any major research projects underway recently?" the reporter asked.

"Recently, I don't have any biology-related projects," Xiang Xiaotong said. "I'm mainly catching up on mathematics. I've encountered a bottleneck in mathematics, and I write books in my spare time."

"I'm mainly busy with the Frontier Technology University School of Pharmacy. The school has just been established, and I'm working from morning to night," Song He said. "In my spare time, I write books with her. She writes the main part, and I add a little bit."

"Oh? Are you two co-authoring the same book?" the reporter asked curiously. "Is it convenient to reveal the general content of the book in advance? Is it a textbook on biomedical research? Or are you both mathematicians writing a mathematics book?"

"It's a book on economics," Xiang Xiaotong said with a smile. "It's a cross-border writing project, and it's hard to say whether we can finish it. It mainly predicts the impact of technological explosions on the human economy."

"Yes, like Hibernation Technology, Longevity Drug Technology, and Dream City Technology," Song He said. "We believe that these three major technologies will cause drastic changes in the human economy. Coincidentally, we are the technology developers and understand the direction of technology, so we are trying to write predictions."

"Books by Nobel Laureates are always very popular, and the content sounds promising! Especially Dream City Technology, it seems that many economists are already paying attention to it, and some theories have been put forward," the host said. "But so far, there is no news about Dream City. Can you reveal the progress of the development?"