Chapter 28: Come be my personal master’s degree student
Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu
Time kept passing. The temperature constantly increased, and it was now the end of May. Zhang Fan never stepped out of the operating room except for the occasional departmental activities. He had mostly finished leveling up his basic general surgery skills by now, as well as joints and spine under orthopedic surgery. However, Zhang Fan was still lacking quite a bit of experience in microscopic orthopedics. This was because very few doctors were willing to perform microscopic orthopedics surgery at a big hospital.
There were three main reasons for this. First, microscopic orthopedics surgeries were incredibly long. Second, microscopic orthopedics surgeries used up very little medical equipment, so the doctors would receive less in medical equipment commission fees. Third, 90% of microscopic orthopedics surgery patients would come in for emergency treatment, often in the middle of the night, so pre-scheduled microscopic orthopedics surgeries at this public hospital were few. It was far more common for private hospitals to perform most of the microscopic orthopedics surgeries.
“Doctor Zhang, your hair is so long that I could braid it. You should take some time off today and get a haircut. If your hair gets any longer, it will be breaking our standards for keeping a sterile environment.” The operating room’s head nurse was a young woman in her early thirties. She was highly efficient and treated Zhang Fan well, but she also had high standards for everyone.
“Sure thing, head nurse. Does this hospital have a barber?”
“Who would get their hair cut at the hospital? The only haircuts we do are complete full-head shaves for brain surgery patients. There’s plenty of barber shops behind the hospital.”
Stories about Zhang Fan’s accomplishments were now well known within the entirety of BCU Hospital. The newer doctors in the orthopedic surgery department now almost felt like they wanted to kill him as Zhang Fan didn’t need to write any medical reports, talk to any of the patients, or have a romantic relationship. He spent every single day in the operating room.
The hospital’s higher-ups didn’t care about any of this. Since Zhang Fan could do all this, he was held as a role model for all others to learn from. Everyone was forced to be just as hard working as he was!
“Doctor Zhang, do you like watching movies? I heard that Transformers 2 is awesome. I have an extra ticket, so why don’t you try watching it?” Ding Lei was unable to take it anymore. He had been stuck every day in the operating room together with Zhang Fan, and now Ding Lei’s girlfriend was about to run off with someone else.
“That sounds boring. I’m not interested in seeing it.”
“How about playing video games, or drinking at a bar? What are your hobbies?”
“Hmm~ I think I don’t like any of those.”
“My lord, if you keep staying in the operating room, my boss will probably fire me.”
“I’m not trying to steal your position here. I’m not even a graduate student, relax.”
“Heavens! But, the Director’s already announced that as long as you’re in the operating room, I must stay at the hospital. I really want to die right now! I want to change hospitals!”
“Is there any bigger hospital in Bluebird City?”
“No, why?”
“Then just rest assured and continue going to work. I’m going out for a haircut, I’ll be right back afterwards.”
Ding Lei started crying while he stared at his cell phone screen which was a picture of his girlfriend. ‘Goodbye, my lover! Why did I have to meet such a maniac? It’s been more than four months now, but he’s left the operating room less than five times!’
BCU Hospital’s superintendent had also personally taught many of Bluebird City University’s master degree students. He was also a talent who received special subsidies from the government. Currently, the director of general surgery and all the directors of the various orthopedic surgery departments were in the superintendent’s office.
“Everyone, we must prepare for the annual surgeons’ conference. This year, several major personages in the surgical field from America, Japan, and several other countries will be participating in this conference. Also, we need to work harder on training our young doctors. Our government’s medical reform standards are quite strict. We must keep making progress, otherwise we’ll be backtracking. How goes the training of the border province doctors?” There were plenty of border province doctors from cities other than Kuake City that had come to train at BCU Hospital.
“They’re all doing fine. Zhang Fan’s situation is the only unique one. Right now, I’m personally teaching him for orthopedic surgery. None of our average attending physicians can even compare to him anymore,” Lin Cong stated.
“Yeah, I’m also personally teaching him for general surgery. He’s already begun learning how to perform a gastrectomy. He’s really talented and especially hard working. He’s hardly even left the operating room at all over the past four months,” the director of general surgery exclaimed.
“Ohh, I would have forgotten about him if you hadn’t mentioned it. What’s Zhang Fan’s academic qualifications? How long has he been a doctor? What’s his current position?”
“Haha, he just graduated last year from S University’s undergraduate medical school. He’s been working for less than one year, so he’s still probably officially just an intern doctor.”
“Oh? A recent graduate who can already start performing gastrectomy surgery after less than one year of working? What’s his skill level in orthopedic surgery?”
“He can already be the primary surgeon for hip replacement surgery!”
“If it wasn’t for the fact that we’re all at work, I’d think that you guys are drunk and spouting rubbish. He must be quite a genius. What department is he currently at right now?”
“He’s in the operating room.”
“Tell him to come see me.”
“Superintendent, you wanted to see me?” Zhang Fan knocked on the door to the superintendent’s office.
“Ahh, Little Zhang. Please, take a seat. The directors of all the surgical departments keep telling me endless praises about you.”
“That’s because this hospital has a friendly working environment. Everyone has been willing to teach me.”
“Do you like it here?”
“Of course.”
“Then how about becoming my personal master’s degree student?” If only there had been an outsider here, that person’s jaw would have surely hit the floor. The superintendent of BCU Hospital hadn’t personally taught any students for so many years already!
“My English is terrible. I’d only be able to guess answers on the test. I’m worried that I wouldn’t be able to pass the master’s degree examinations.”
“Just work on English with 10% of the effort you spend on surgeries, and I’ll be absolutely confident that your English will improve. Seeing you reminds me of my own teacher, Professor Qiu Fazu. Both of you have something in common—you’re both all-around surgical geniuses. Your vision is even wider than his is. You even know how to perform highly difficult orthopedic surgeries already. That’s why, you shouldn’t waste the talent that the heavens have bestowed you with. Your lack of academic qualifications is your greatest weakness. If you want to become accomplished in the medical field, you must improve your academic qualifications.”
Zhang Fan was feeling conflicted after he left the superintendent’s office. Should he accept this offer to become the superintendent’s personal master’s degree student or not? If he did, the good part would be that he could improve his academic qualifications. The bad part would be that he would no longer be able to freely perform surgeries as he liked. All master’s degree students in China were required to sign up for a specific major. So far, there had been no historical examples of a student who could sign up for all majors.
Leveling up his System was more important to Zhang Fan than anything else. He decided to temporarily just focus on leveling his System for the time being since he still hadn’t even finished all the basic courses under general surgery yet. He struggled a while longer with his inner conflict before returning to the operating room.
If Ding Lei and the other recent graduates learned about this, they would probably want to die even more. Becoming the personal student of BCU Hospital’s superintendent? Was Zhang Fan joking? All the younger surgeons would be willing to pay a great deal of money or even fight over the potential slot as long as the superintendent was willing to take a new student.
Zhang Fan’s days were quite hectic during his six-month study at BCU Hospital. Time passed very quickly. Now that it was the end of May, Zhang Fan also needed to prepare for his medical license exam’s practical skills exam portion. The medical license exam in China was split up into two parts—the practical skills exam in June, and the written exam in September.
Zhang Fan didn’t have much time left for his study at BCU Hospital. He didn’t want to waste any time, so he gritted his teeth and prepared himself to purchase a roundtrip airplane ticket. Batu had finished his own hospital management study already. It seemed that he still hadn’t been confirmed yet as the new Director of the Bureau of Public Health, so Batu was still the superintendent of Kuake City Hospital.
Flying from Bluebird City to the capital of the border province would still leave several hundred kilometers before reaching Chasu City. Zhang Fan decided to just fly the entire distance. When he calculated the plane fare, he found that the round trip would cost a bit more than five thousand yuan. Zhang Fan was so pained by this!
“Zhang Fan, when are you going to come back? It’s almost time for your exam.” Batu had recently been in a poor mood. He was also anxious for Zhang Fan to return as he wanted Zhang Fan to contact Wang Qian.
“Superintendent Batu, should I take a plane? Should I take a plane?”
“If you want to take a plane, then go ahead. Such a small matter. I know that you’re probably unwilling to pay the airfare. Here, I’ll write it off for you as hospital expenses.”
Since someone else was footing the bill for the airfare, Zhang Fan happily purchased his roundtrip plane tickets and asked Director Lin Cong for a few days’ vacation time. He wouldn’t be going to the operating room for the next two days, as he would focus on watching other doctors’ standardized movements instead. Zhang Fan would be reduced to tears if he couldn’t pass his practical skills exam. He had no problems whatsoever with any surgical movements. It was just gynecology and pediatrics that were the issue.
Zhang Fan took a glance at the sea before he left Bluebird City. He felt that it was rather awkward how he had come to a seaside city but still hadn’t seen the sea yet.
“It’s so big, but why isn’t it a brilliant blue like on television? It’s only slightly clearer than the Yellow River. Everything on TV lies to you. I’m never going to watch TV again,” Zhang Fan mumbled to himself as he looked at the sea.
“I finally get to see you again. It’s almost been half a year. You’re finally out from your cultivation hermitage?” The director of internal medicine at Kuake City Hospital finally saw Zhang Fan again back at the dormitory.
“I need to go back to the border province for my medical license examination. I’m leaving tomorrow, so I came back here to tell you and ask if there’s anything that you want to send to the border province. I can take it back with me for you.”
“Oh, I really do have something. Fresh food is hard to take, but I have some dried food that you can help take back for me. Thanks.” And so, Zhang Fan took some dried food back with him to the border province.
He also personally purchased some dried food as gifts to others. There weren’t too many people that he wanted to give gifts to—just Superintendent Batu, Director Gao, Kang Hua, Tang Jingjing, and Wang Qian. All of these people had helped him before. Although his gifts weren’t expensive, they were a sign of his friendship!