Chapter 185: Tears streaming down
Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu
The female doctors of the endocrinology department no longer tried to tease Zhang Fan. Since his skills were now so noticeably high that others would have to raise their heads to look at him, even if his coworkers didn’t worship him, they would at least give him a certain amount of respect. Zhang Fan was currently in such a situation.
Even when the female doctors teased the other rotation doctors, they wouldn’t mention anything about Zhang Fan. His teaching doctor Ren Lina was also really polite to him now. She had felt that it was only natural for him to help out with the work in the department when he was first rotated here. Now, she felt rather awkward about that, and no longer let Zhang Fan do some of the smaller tasks. Ren Lina noticed that Zhang Fan liked to read over medical reports, so she started doing minor things like helping the patients with their paperwork, obtaining the patients’ experimental data results, talking to the patients’ family members, and so on. She didn’t even mention it to Zhang Fan.
Respect came from actual strength. Although the female doctors didn’t have anything they needed from him, they now gave him some respect. This was the nature of a workplace where skills ruled. As long as you were alright as a person, you really would have it much easier if you were one of the most skilled people at your workplace. The bosses would treat you well, and your coworkers would raise you on a pedestal. In such an environment, it would usually take at least 10x someone’s current salary in order to be headhunted away by another company.
Director Dilibaer’s medical techniques favored the Soviet style. There was nothing right or wrong about this. China had also learned many medical techniques from the former Soviet Union back in the day, separating the various medical fields into independent fields and schools. However, over the past few decades, the weaknesses of the Soviet system were exposed more and more.
Medical students graduated with knowledge only about their respective major. After working for a few years as an intern doctor and getting permanently assigned to a department, a doctor would only know how to treat illnesses related to their own department. There was a certain joke in the medical field that went like this: a Class A hospital organized its doctors to go out and treat the community’s problems, with all sorts of expert doctors from all the departments in attendance. What was the most common illness in the community? The common cold. Apart from the respiratory department doctors being able to treat the colds, the expert doctors from other departments didn’t even know how to treat the common cold! Although this joke was somewhat exaggerated, it wasn’t very far from the truth.
Currently, China was now beginning to recombine the different medical fields and schools. However, such medical schools had already been independent for several decades, so they would have completely incompatible systems and ways of doing things. There would also be problems with human resources and politics. If the principal of one school became a vice principal instead after two medical schools combined, that would be a demotion in name, which would cause a lot of trouble. There was also a lot of obstruction from the leaders of these medical schools. Although China’s overall situation was forcing the schools to combine now, there were still many problems with combining the medical schools. The consequences could only be handed down to the students.
Work in the endocrinology department continued as usual; there were plenty of patients who needed the doctors’ help as always.
Later on this day, the general surgery director of Dee University Affiliated Hospital in Raptor City called Chasu City Hospital, telling them that a patient with a typical example of having two large tumors in the center of the liver would be coming over for liver tumor removal surgery this weekend, and that Chasu City Hospital should make the necessary preparations. This was all due to Professor Li Jingjin’s arrangement with Zhang Fan to have liver tumor removal surgeries performed in Chasu City Hospital ever since he came over last time and witnessed Zhang Fan’s skills.
This caused Chasu City Hospital to gain a lot of face. Superintendent Ouyang had been really worried during the first time that Zhang Fan performed liver tumor removal surgery, but now it was time for her to really show off. It would be quite like her to take advantage of a provincial hospital like Dee University Affiliated Hospital asking a smaller hospital like Chasu City Hospital for assistance.
Superintendent Ouyang didn’t even report this to the Bureau of Health. Instead, she directly reported this manner to City Leader Zhao of Chasu City, who then ordered the Bureau of Health to fully cooperate. Well, what type of cooperation was necessary?
First, the Bureau of Health issued an official announcement to all public hospitals located within Chasu City’s jurisdiction that on this weekend Chasu City Hospital would be performing a highly difficult surgery, and that all hospitals had to send their general surgery director and several doctors to come observe the surgery.
Superintendent Ouyang then filled the hallways of Chasu City Hospital with endless proclamations about this upcoming surgery so that all patients would instantly be able to learn about this.
“Just look, Chasu City Hospital is so amazing now. Even expert doctors from Dee University Affiliated Hospital are coming to study here,” went one conversation between two patients.
Chasu City Hospital had gained so much face! The superintendent of Chasu City Chinese Medicine Hospital smashed his teacup in anger. “That Superintendent Ouyang is going so overboard! Does she care even one bit about our medical industry’s unwritten rules!? She’s not giving any face to any other hospital at all!”
Normally, public hospitals would rarely do much advertising, yet Superintendent Ouyang was doing all of this, which transmitted an obvious message to all other hospitals in Chasu City’s jurisdiction. She was declaring that Chasu City Hospital was the absolute best hospital in all of Chasu City!
This type of advertising would actually be most effective on those who understood the medical industry best, which meant the doctors themselves. After all the doctors from the smaller city hospitals finished observing Zhang Fan’s surgery this weekend, they would definitely recommend to any of their friends or relatives that they go visit Chasu City Hospital for any problems.
The rebellious gastrointestinal director surnamed Chen was forced to go to inland China. Director Chen had worked at Dee University Affiliated Hospital prior to this for several decades and risen to the position of vice director there, but in the end, he got fired by Superintendent Ouyang and was thus unable to go to his planned job of becoming vice superintendent at Chasu City Chinese Medicine Hospital, as he had lost far too much face. This was the consequence of him looking down on Chasu City Hospital. Director Chen would only be able to work for some money in the future. The days of him being respected for his high skills or being able to obtain a high position were over.
At the time, Li Jingjin’s conditions for Dee University Affiliated Hospital sending its patients over was that DUA Hospital would be fully in charge of the patient, and that all of the surgical assistants also had to be doctors from DUA Hospital. So, on Chasu City Hospital’s end, the only one who really needed to prepare was Zhang Fan. However, Chasu City Hospital’s general surgery director Zhao Quanping definitely wouldn’t let go of this opportunity to learn. Even DUA Hospital’s professor was coming here to study and learn from Zhang Fan, so Zhao Quanping didn’t feel like he would lose any face by doing the same.
In China, the southeastern area bordering the ocean would have the highest rate of liver tumors. Over the past few years, the border province had also been rapidly increasing in the number of liver tumor patients. Aflatoxin was the primary culprit behind this.
Aflatoxins were a type of toxin produced by decaying peanuts, melons, and so on. As a reminder, if you eat a spoiled melon and taste something bitter in your mouth, immediately rinse your mouth out with water! Also, please remember that you absolutely can’t swallow this water, and you must spit it out!
It had been quite difficult for Li Jingjin to bring the patient over to Chasu City for the surgery. The patient didn’t really understand why he should have the surgery performed in a smaller city hospital instead of in Raptor City, which was the provincial capital of the border province. Professor Li told the patient the truth that there was a doctor in Chasu City who was amazing at performing this specific type of surgery. The patient didn’t really believe this, nor did he really want to go to a smaller city hospital to have the surgery done.
First of all, it would be inconvenient. The patient would need lots of postoperative care after the surgery. His family would need to rent an apartment or something similar in Chasu City then. At any rate, the patient had lots of excuses for not wanting to go. This was just a strange trait of Chinese society’s medical problems. If Professor Li had instead contacted a major hospital in Beijing, then the patient’s family never would have mentioned anything.
However, the patient’s demands weren’t any problem for Professor Li. This type of liver tumor removal surgery for large tumors in the center of the liver was already one of the most difficult types of liver surgery. The only more difficult type of liver surgery would be liver transplant surgery. However, for liver transplants, not only would there be a really high cost for the surgery, it would also be extremely difficult to find a liver donor. So, at the provincial hospital, such a liver tumor removal surgery would really be one of the most useful as well as difficult surgeries, which was why Professor Li was trying so hard to learn the surgery from Zhang Fan. Professor Li instantly resolved all of the patient’s family’s issues with a single phone call.
The medical equipment supplier merchants for the provincial hospital would organize some academic conferences every year. Although the invited professors wouldn’t do any advertising for them, the medical equipment suppliers would do their own advertising as plenty of those in the medical field would attend a conference hosted by someone like the general surgery director of a provincial hospital!
The medical equipment supplier merchants would pay the money to host the entire academic conference. They didn’t ask for much other than that they be allowed to arrange things for the academic conference. Professor Li had a talk with Superintendent Ouyang about this, and the latter instantly agreed. Such academic conferences and what they represented were things that everyone in the field understood. With the medical equipment supplier merchants arranging the conference, they would also bring some of their own products to show off, as well as give small gifts to everyone attending the conference, since anyone coming to such an academic conference would be a potential customer for them. Not to mention, the people attending such academic conferences would need to leave their phone numbers and hospital information.
Zhang Fan didn’t need to worry about any of this. Nor would he.
Those who excelled in studying were excellent because they would always courageously keep moving forward upon learning of their own insufficiencies. As Zhang Fan was writing a medical report, he suddenly noticed someone beside him. He turned around to see Wang Xiaoyan standing next to him with a conflicted expression.
“What is it, Doctor Wang?” Zhang Fan was somewhat confused to see her.
“Um, during the major weekly patient checkup from last time, could I ask where you learned the knowledge that you discussed with everyone? I would also like to learn such knowledge. Ah, don’t worry about it if it’s inconvenient for you.” Wang Xiaoyan was really polite and reserved now. Her earlier competitive spirit had vanished. She now seemed more like a shy girl!
“Oh! Here’s the most recent endocrinology textbook. Feel free to take a look. However, you need to return it to me before our work shift is over because I’m not done with it yet. This textbook also isn’t mine. As for the anatomy and surgical knowledge, I learned all that before while I was in a study program at Bluebird City University Hospital.” Zhang Fan did his best to come up with excuses to explain away his knowledge since there would actually be quite a lot of knowledge he knew which wasn’t in the textbook.
“Oh! Thank you so much!” Wang Xiaoyan’s eyes shone brightly since she felt like she had discovered a way to improve herself. She took Zhang Fan’s endocrinology textbook and instantly started studying it right there.
Zhang Fan observed Wang Xiaoyan as he continued writing his medical report, for he wanted to know how someone like her who was actually good at studying would go about reading this textbook. Wang Xiaoyan also didn’t have any English dictionary or electronic translation device with her. One hour later, Zhang Fan felt a tremendous impact from observing her studying.
Zhang Fan was rather bad at English, so he received a huge impact. From start to finish, Wang Xiaoyan hadn’t needed any help with understanding the English at all. Although she wasn’t that fast at reading through the essays in the textbook, her reading speed was much faster than Zhang Fan’s. Not only that, she kept writing her own notes as she studied the textbook. Zhang Fan used the excuse of getting water to go over and take a peek at her notes. His heart started twitching rapidly as he received yet another brutal impact. This was because even Wang Xiaoyan’s notes were completely in English! Additionally, her handwriting was beautiful!
This was the difference between them! What could he do? Zhang Fan could only grind. Besides, since Wang Xiaoyan was willing to ask him about how to further study medical knowledge, he could ask her about how to study English!
When the work shift ended, Wang Xiaoyan returned the textbook to Zhang Fan. “Doctor Zhang, could you please loan that textbook to me tomorrow as well? I didn’t have enough time to finish reading it today.”
“Sure, no problem.” Wang Xiaoyan had actually finished half of the textbook in just a single afternoon, which made Zhang Fan feel rather helpless. He then asked, “Doctor Wang, how would I go about rapidly improving my medical English?”
“Hmm! I don’t think there’s any method to rapidly improve. First, you need to study medical vocabulary and improve your overall vocabulary level. Things should improve after that.”
“However, there’s many words that I can’t find translations for, even on the search engines,” Zhang Fan said unwillingly.
“Many English medical vocabulary are actually Latin abbreviations, which is why you won’t be able to find them!” Zhang Fan didn’t hear the rest of what she said, because he was seeing black before his eyes! This was so difficult!
Zhang Fan was depressed as he got off from work. He had just discovered a new way to improve his medical techniques—studying foreign language texts. Just as he was about to charge forward, he also discovered that this new method required him to climb over a tremendously tall mountain by the name Mt. English! There was no use in trying to rush. He would have to take things slowly!
The weather was becoming colder and colder. Back when Zhang Fan was still single, he never wore any scarves, gloves, hats, and so on. He would simply put his hands in his pockets, retreat his head more into his jacket, and let things be.
After he started going out with Shao Hua, she would deal with all of that for him. Zhang Fan used to dress quite casually, but now he dressed quite sharply thanks to Shao Hua.
Just one of his clothing items would be worth more than several of Shao Hua’s clothing items. She was unwilling to spend that much on herself, but she was really generous to Zhang Fan. He really didn’t have high requirements at all for eating and clothes. If the food was delicious, he would simply eat more. He was fine as long as his clothing was clean. But, the clothes would indeed make the appearance. Zhang Fan now seemed far more like a scholar!
Although the border province wasn’t the coldest place in China, there would still be significant snow here, including blizzards, when nobody would be able to go outside. Zhang Fan had already met with two such blizzards here. That was why all the cars would change to snow tires that were specially equipped with anti-slip factor in winters here. Even so, there would still be more car accidents in winter.
Zhang Fan wanted to spend more time on grinding his English skills, but at this time, he was called to help with more and more orthopedic surgeries at other hospitals, leaving him incredibly busy.
For the winter solstice, many Chinese Han people would burn paper money as an offering to their deceased relatives. At Shao Hua’s family, her mother made dumplings as it was a tradition to eat dumplings on the winter solstice in order to prevent one’s ears from freezing. This was a tradition passed down through the generations.
A bit past seven in the evening, when Zhang Fan and Shao Hua’s family were about to happily start eating dumplings together, Zhang Fan’s cell phone suddenly rang. He immediately picked up when he saw from the caller ID that it was the hospital administration department. Calling him at such a time surely meant that there was an emergency patient that he needed to treat.
“Doctor Zhang, hurry! Come as fast as you possibly can to the hospital now.”
“Okay. I’ll be there immediately.”
Shao Hua’s heart instantly clenched nervously when she heard this phone call. She couldn’t help but worry! This was all because of the special nature of Zhang Fan’s profession.
“I need to leave now. Something happened!” Zhang Fan put on his gloves and was about to leave.
“Be careful, and drive slowly!” Shao Hua hurried after Zhang Fan to remind him.
“I know.”
“How about you take some dumplings with you? You haven’t eaten a single thing yet!” Shao Hua’s mother came chasing after him while carrying a plate of dumplings which were still giving off steam.
“I don’t have the time!” Zhang Fan had already left!
With Zhang Fan leaving in such a hurry, the originally lively atmosphere was dampened. Shao Hua was worried about Zhang Fan and didn’t have much of an appetite.
“Sigh! What is all this! We can’t even eat a meal in peace,” Shao Hua’s mother commented to herself.
“What are you saying? This is his work, his responsibility! Since we’re all going to be family, we need to be mentally prepared.” Although Shao Hua’s father appeared to be telling this to his wife, he was actually saying it to Shao Hua.
Here in winter, when snow extended past the mountains, certain dark sides of society would start rearing their heads. None of the small countries on China’s border were rich. Not only that, these small countries were the site of three major countries’ infighting and competition, as China, Russia, and America would all constantly stir up trouble there. The small countries’ own governments were quite weak to begin with, so the meddling of all the bigger countries sent things into even further chaos.
What came with that was crime! The neighboring countries were quite chaotic. Weapons and drugs were quite easily obtainable there. Even some small tribes would have many military-grade weapons. The world wasn’t peaceful, and human lives weren’t worth much money. Some people in these countries would choose risky paths for themselves.
These chaotic countries would then target the closest and richest place to them: China! The police in the border province would even have a different name from regular police in inland China, as police here were also known as border security! It was common for there to be many policemen in inland China who had worked their whole lives as a policeman without shooting a gun a single time before. But here in the border province, even a gun might not be enough for protection if there was an incident.
Back when China was poorer, others would ignore the country, but now that China had gotten slightly richer, plenty of spies, sex traffickers, drug dealers, and so on started crossing the border, coming to China. There was even a certain saying in China that the three cities with the most foreign spies were Beijing, Dalian, and Raptor City, the capital of the border province.
There were many organized crime groups from various different countries in Raptor City. Whenever a criminal organization angered China too much, the organization would lie low for a period of time. It was also rare for the criminal organizations to do anything major in the summer.
However, in winters, the criminal organizations would often arm themselves with guns as they smuggled illegal items into China using rather well-hidden routes. Succeeding in smuggling even once could give a tribe enough money to eat and drink well for three whole years. If they failed several times in succession, then this tribe would no longer exist, as the men would all be dead and the women would be taken away by other criminal organizations. As for the children? They would become orphans or even worse.
This time, Sumu City’s border security had been out patrolling when they encountered a small tribe that didn’t have many men. The tribe had 10 or so people who were all engaging in criminal activity. They were also armed with assault rifles and grenades. For such a small tribe, they were going all out and gambling everything they had on this illegal smuggling. If they didn’t succeed here, they wouldn’t have any future. Yet, they had still been discovered by China’s border security.
The criminals immediately opened fire! Modern-day weapons would be heartless and strike with tremendous power. After the end of the gunfight, the border security lost an unknown number of people. However, six of them were seriously injured. The local city hospital of Sumu City was unable to treat such serious injuries.
The border security policemen counted directly as part of the military. The military thus contacted the leaders of the border province, who then issued a command to Chasu City as the closest medium-sized city. City Leader Zhao of Chasu City then issued a command to Superintendent Ouyang.
“Right now, there’s a group of injured patients with special status that are being rushed to Kuake City Hospital under Chasu City’s jurisdiction. Superintendent Ouyang, you’re to lead a team of the very best doctors from your hospital and bring all necessary medical equipment and supplies for emergency treatment and head out to Kuake City Hospital at absolute top speed. Chasu City’s military police will ensure that the road between the two cities is kept clear for your sake,” the city leader’s secretary said in a raspy voice!
Kuake City just happened to be halfway between Chasu City and Sumu City. In order to let the injured border security police get the best treatment as quickly as possible, it was decided that Sumu City’s medical personnel would accompany the injured patients to Kuake City.
Superintendent Zou of Kuake City Hospital also received the command that his hospital was to treat the injured patients. He immediately collapsed on his chair after receiving this phone call. This was supposed to be his final year right before retirement, yet such an incident occurred at this time, which really caught him unprepared.
Superintendent Zou had been embezzling small amounts of money from Kuake City Hospital for countless times. Normally, as long as nobody ranking higher than him cared to investigate, he would be able to get away with doing all of this. However, the problem was that all of the doctors in the surgical department of Kuake City Hospital whose skills were even slightly above average had resigned already due to how he always gave surgery patients over to other hospitals in exchange for some money. Currently, Kuake City Hospital’s surgical department only had intern doctors left, and those intern doctors wouldn’t be able to handle even the simplest appendix surgeries. It was obvious that these soon-to-arrive military patients would likely require surgery. Since they were coming to Kuake City Hospital, this would become his responsibility, and likely a critical problem for him that he wouldn’t be able to deal with! His corruption would also likely be exposed!
When Zhang Fan rushed over to Chasu City Hospital, the hospital entrance was already blockaded by the military police. The police cars were shining with sirens, while military police wielding visible guns patrolled around with serious expressions. There were also some military police who were moving equipment around on the cars.
The moment that Zhang Fan arrived, the surgeon vice superintendent brought him to a military police car. All of the military police cars were Leopard SUVs (a Chinese car brand). Here in the border province, only four-wheel drive SUVs would be of any use during the winter.
Four others were already sitting in this car. The driver was a military policeman, while the other three were Zhang Fan’s coworkers. He saw nurse Chen Yun, who was the most skilled nurse who worked in the operating rooms, along with the vice director of general surgery as well as the director of the intensive care unit.
The military policeman driver had a severe expression. He looked only forward and didn’t even turn around to glance at Zhang Fan. Since Zhang Fan had just arrived, he didn’t know what was going on. He also didn’t dare to ask anything in such an atmosphere, so he only looked at his three coworkers.
“Don’t think about anything unnecessary. You should hurry and rest a little on the way so that you have the energy to save the emergency patients,” the vice director of general surgery said with a serious expression. Actually, he also knew very little about what was going on.
“Oh!” Zhang Fan was unable to nap or rest, because he had yet to eat dinner. His stomach was rumbling! Just as he was thinking about how to forget his hunger, someone spoke in the military policeman driver’s walkie-talkie. “Prepare to head out. We’re going to District #323. Turn on your police sirens! We’re heading out at full speed!”
The military policeman driver started the car. The military police had already blockaded the entire road leading from Chasu City to Kuake City, forbidding any ordinary traffic from using this road. The military policeman was able to drive down the entire road at an extremely quick speed. Zhang Fan had only dared to drive at such a speed in the middle of the night before when going to other hospitals for surgeries. Zhang Fan was unable to see anything when he looked out the window because it was getting quite dark already. He then looked at the odometer and saw that the driver was going at a speed of 110 km/h!
‘Something really major must have happened!’ The car drove on at a high speed down the empty road, surrounded only by other military police cars and sirens. At this moment, Superintendent Ouyang’s voice spoke up on the walkie-talkie for all to hear.
“Comrades, this is Ouyang Hong. Not long ago, an enemy terrorist organization violently attacked our country’s border security personnel. Currently, there are six comrades from border security who are seriously injured. We have raised you just for such critical moments. Everyone, please take this opportunity to rest up as we will be needed soon. Our comrades working in border security have done an excellent job. Now it’s our turn!”
The coworkers from the hospital communicated with each other nonverbally through their eyes. They then all closed their eyes to rest. Since their eyes were closed, none of them noticed that tears were now streaming down the military policeman driver’s cheeks!