Chapter 15: Duel between experts

Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu

The snowfall on the roads had finally been cleared away. It was now possible to travel between Kuake City and other cities again.

During this period while Kuake City was sealed off by the snowfall, Kuake City Hospital had received far more patients than normal. The nearby larger city sent a team of expert doctors over to Kuake City Hospital for the sake of supporting Kuake City Hospital and relieving the doctors’ workload.

The team of expert doctors consisted of five individuals with differing specialties. There was a cardiologist 1 , a pulmonologist 2 , a physician, an orthopedic surgeon, and an ultrasound technician. These experts all had China’s second-highest level certification in their fields, and they were all preparing for the exam for the highest-level certification. Director Gao Shijun, the orthopedic surgeon on the team of expert doctors, was especially an elite among them. After the last director of the bigger city hospital’s orthopedic department retired, Gao Shijun had become the director as everyone expected.

Everyone else just treated the expert doctors’ arrival normally, but Yang Chengming was overjoyed. He had also been in the orthopedic department at this larger city hospital. Yang Chengming knew quite well that Director Gao Shijun was truly skilled in orthopedic surgery.

“Just wait for there to be a surgery. Just check out Director Gao Shijun’s skill level. He’s far better than any doctor at such a rural hospital like this one. Zhang Fan or Chen Qifa? Whatever! They’re just minor characters that will be humiliated,” Yang Chengming proudly bragged to fellow fresh graduate Li Liang.

“Chen Qifa and Zhang Fan aren’t bad at all. I’m sure that Director Gao Shijun is skilled, but Zhang Fan’s still better than any of us. To Zhang Fan, you and I are the minor characters who will be humiliated.” Li Liang ignored Yang Chengming and focused on his work of changing patients’ medicine.

“You, you, you really don’t know what’s out there!” Yang Chengming was angered that his bragging hadn’t impressed his audience. He angrily threw a book onto the table.

Actually, Zhang Fan had never insulted or had any conflicts with Yang Chengming. Yet, Yang Chengming simply disliked Zhang Fan. It was more than just jealousy or condescension. Perhaps the two of them were just destined not to get along.

“Director Gao, please have some tea!” Yang Chengming felt like he could finally show off again now that his savior had arrived. Yang Chengming’s abilities when working at the bigger city hospital had been alright, and he left the doctors there with a good impression, which was why Gao Shijun still remembered him.

“Oh, Yang Chengming. What’s up, are you getting used to working here?” Gao Shijun greeted him out of politeness.

“It’s whatever. There’s hardly any patients for me, so I just spend every day studying.” Gao Shijun was just asking out of politeness, but didn’t expect that Yang Chengming really did have many complaints.

“Take it slow, no need to rush.”

Gao Shijun secretly wondered, ‘This youngster really doesn’t know how to behave in the working society. If he has conflicts with the doctors here, why complain to me about it? It’s not like I’m a director at this hospital.” He then ignored Yang Chengming.

Gao Shijun turned around and smiled at Nuar. “Director Nuar, you’re looking quite good. I still remember seeing you at last year’s annual orthopedic surgeons conference. At the time, Director Nuar’s alcohol tolerance truly astounded everyone, haha...”

“Haha... I’m getting older, and can hardly go on anymore. Director Gao, we’ve prepared a welcoming dinner for you at our department. Let’s all drink some together, and I’ll also introduce you to our new intern doctors. They’re all outstanding talents.” For once in a blue moon, Director Nuar wasn’t drunk today.

After the morning meeting, Nuar and Gao Shijun began to check on all the patients in surgery department #2. Although surgery department #2 in Kuake City Hospital consisted of two departments, the brain surgery department and orthopedic department, the brain surgery department here almost never had any patients. As for the only two brain surgeons, Shi Lei only cared about trying to get promoted, and Tu Xun slacked off every day and only did the minimum amount of work he had to. Thus, the brain surgery department had hardly been developed at Kuake City Hospital.

Gao Shijun discovered that the orthopedic department had a high number of patients, so he commented, “Director Nuar, you’ve truly developed your orthopedic department well. Out of all the local smaller city hospitals in the area, your orthopedic department has the best reputation and the most patients seen. You’ve also completed many high-quality and high-difficulty surgeries. Excellent job.”

“It’s all thanks to the new youngster. Our new intern doctor, Doctor Zhang, is really amazing.”

“A new intern doctor?” Gao Shijun was rather confused to hear this. He knew quite well about the average skill level of intern doctors who had just graduated from medical school. Forget about the undergraduates, even a master’s degree student who had studied orthopedic surgery as their major would still only be able to perform the simplest orthopedic surgeries. As for an undergraduate student? It would be considered quite good if that student recognized every single piece of medical equipment used in orthopedic surgery.

“Oh, really? Congratulations, then.” Gao Shijun kept a calm tone.

Later that night, Zhang Fan was on duty at the hospital, so he was unable to attend the welcoming party in the orthopedic department for Director Gao. Chen Qifa volunteered to take Zhang Fan’s shift, but Zhang Fan refused.

If he had to attend this party, he would be forced to drink alcohol. Zhang Fan really hated this border province’s custom of having to drink three glasses first before any party could start. His experience told him that three glasses were more than enough to render him unconscious.

Coincidentally, an old retired lady who required surgery arrived at the orthopedic department the next morning. She had slipped and fallen while out for a walk, and she broke her fall with her arms. She ended up fracturing both of her humerus bones, one in the left arm and one in the right arm, almost identically.

After the old lady’s family members heard that Gao Shijun was currently helping out at Kuake City Hospital, they directly came to find Gao Shijun.

“I’ve been in the medical field for more than twenty years now, but I’ve never seen such identical symmetrical fractures before. I feel like I could take a picture and write a thesis on this,” Gao Shijun commented. “Director Nuar, shall we begin surgery on both fractures simultaneously?”

“You can discuss that with the youngster Doctor Zhang. I’m too old to personally perform surgery anymore.”

Due to Zhang Fan voluntarily doing all the work in the orthopedic department, Director Nuar no long had to worry about anything. The only work he did now was splitting the medical fee commission equally three ways every month with Chen Qifa and Zhang Fan.

Inside the operating room, Gao Shijun prepared for the old lady’s surgery. “Doctor Chen, you take charge of the right humerus, and I’ll perform surgery on the left humerus. Both of the fractures are clean breaks. This will be a very easy surgery that only requires reconnecting the bone and inserting a metal plate.” Gao Shijun knew that Chen Qifa had an alright medical skill level since Chen Qifa had previously acted as Gao Shijun’s assistant whenever Gao Shijun was previously sent to Kuake City Hospital to help out.

“Director Gao, I’ll be acting as Doctor Zhang’s surgical assistant. He’ll be the main doctor together with you for this surgery.”

‘How strange. Just who could he be? Director Nuar keeps praising him, and the only veteran orthopedic surgeon here is subservient to him as well.’ Gao Shijun glanced at Zhang Fan, but didn’t say anything.

Zhang Fan had Chen Qifa as his assistant, while Gao Shijun had Yang Chengming as his assistant. Li Liang didn’t try to fight Yang Chengming over the position of surgical assistant. Li Liang’s medical skill level was quite low, so he knew that he would only humiliate himself if he tried to help in the operating room.

The surgery began after the anesthesia was administered. Both Zhang Fan and Gao Shijun had incredibly well-practiced and swift movements. Gao Shijun kept peeking at the other half of the surgery handled by Zhang Fan as he couldn’t feel reassured. This was because he would be the person held responsible for anything that happened since he was the only one with a medical license in this operating room. Before the surgery started, he hadn’t said anything, because he knew nothing about Zhang Fan. Gao Shijun was prepared to speak up at any moment that he noticed a problem with the surgery. Since this old lady had only two very simple fractures, Gao Shijun was unafraid of any minor mistakes as it would be easy for himself to fix.

‘What’s going on here? This youngster seems to be incredibly well-practiced in his movements. They’re just about as good as mine,’ Gao Shijun confusedly assessed Zhang Fan’s skills as he watched the other half of the surgery.

“Doctor Zhang, which medical grad school did you graduate from? You’re quite good at performing surgery.” This was Gao Shijun’s first time ever talking to Zhang Fan. He mistook Zhang Fan as a grad school student due to the latter’s skill.

Although Gao Shijun was chatting, he didn’t slow down the surgery one bit. He couldn’t allow a youngster to be seen as doing better than him, since he was the orthopedic director of a large city hospital and intended to join a Class A hospital in the future!

“Director Gao, I’m an undergrad student from S University. I never studied for a master’s degree. Back when I was interning at my college, my teachers allowed me to try many things myself, which is why I’ve gotten a lot of practice.” This was the excuse that Zhang Fan always gave to explain his skills.

‘Ridiculous! Even if you perform humerus surgeries every day for an entire year while interning, you still wouldn’t possibly get that good!’ However, Gao Shijun didn’t say anything else as he concentrated fully once more on the surgery—Zhang Fan was truly swift.

Everything in the operating room remained completely quiet. Kuake City Hospital had never witnessed two expert doctors working on the exact same surgery type simultaneously before. Everyone watching was quite curious who would finish first and who would do a better job.

In the end, Zhang Fan and Chen Qifa finished their surgery on the right arm first. This wasn’t because Gao Shijun was less skilled than Zhang Fan, but rather because Chen Qifa was a veteran doctor who was far more skilled than the intern doctor Yang Chengming as a surgical assistant with tasks like osteosynthesis and inserting the metal plating.

Although Zhang Fan did slightly want to compare himself with Gao Shijun, Zhang Fan was more interested in grinding surgical experience so that his System would allow him to take higher-level courses. As long as he did most of the surgical work, the System would still count it fully for his surgical experience even with an assistant helping him.

“Doctor Zhang, not bad at all!” Gao Shijun was absolutely astonished. Although his own assistant was very unskilled, Gao Shijun was in his mid-forties, so he was a veteran doctor with decades of experience by now. Just how old could this youngster in front of him possibly be? Just how had this youngster obtained so much experience?

“This still isn’t enough. I was only able to perform the surgery faster than Director Gao today because of Doctor Chen being my assistant.”

Yang Chengming felt like he was almost about to cry. How was he supposed to return to the bigger city hospital’s orthopedic department now? He had caused his director to lose face. That would be a huge problem. If only he had known, he would have let Li Liang who had even worse medical skills act as the surgical assistant here today. Yang Chengming’s hands even began trembling to the point where he was no longer able to perform something as simple as the surgical sutures. In the end, Gao Shijun had to do the surgical sutures alongside Zhang Fan, who always did every surgical suture he could for System experience.