Chapter 24: Then let’s compete in connections

Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu

Back at Kuake City, Zhang Fan followed the unwritten rule of dividing the spoils equally. He split everything equally, apart from the Apple cell phone, and prepared to give it to Batu. “I’ll do the same as you and also wish you an early happy New Year’s.” When Zhang Fan brought Batu to the latter’s home, Zhang Fan tried to bring all these gifts into Batu’s home.

“Forget it, I don’t lack such things. Just put them all back in the car, and come in for a meal.” Batu refused to let Zhang Fan bring gifts inside, so Zhang Fan could only enter Batu’s home empty-handed.

Batu’s wife was quite pretty. She was also slender, a rarity among Mongolian women. Lunch was delicious hand-grabbed mutton. Zhang Fan scarfed down a huge plate.

“It’s so nice to be young. I don’t even want to cook when it’s just my husband and myself,” Batu’s wife commented to Zhang Fan.

“Your food is so delicious.” Zhang Fan’s face was somewhat red as he felt like he had eaten too much!

“Are you going back to Chasu City again this afternoon?” Batu asked after Zhang Fan finished eating.

“Yeah. I feel like I’m becoming a professional driver. I’ve been driving so much every day, and barely get to do any surgeries.”

“Relax. You’ll have plenty to do later. After New Year’s, our border province is going to send some doctors to study and improve their skills. I’m choosing you from our surgery department.”

“Really!? How long will it be for?”

“Our city government has already approved it. The study will last for about six months.”

After eating, Zhang Fan chatted for a while before preparing to go to Chasu City. Before he left, Batu handed a bag to Zhang Fan.

“You don’t drink, so go ahead and smoke these over New Year’s.”

“Superintendent Batu, this isn’t appropriate. I was the one who was supposed to wish you a happy New Year’s here.”

“Forget it, it’s fine as long as you had the intention. You should hurry and go now.”

Even though Zhang Fan’s car could no longer even be seen now, Batu kept standing still at his own door in a daze.

“Aren’t you cold? You didn’t even wear a jacket. I feel like you’ve been here for almost half an hour! Why don’t you come in?” Batu’s wife came out to see what was going on.

“I think that this youngster now knows someone high-ranked in the municipal Communist Party committee. In the future, I might need to rely on him... more than he relies on me.”

“Is that so? Then how about inviting him over for New Year’s Eve? He doesn’t have anywhere else to go here, does he?”

“Whether we have a good relationship or not won’t depend on a single day like New Year’s Eve. Alright, let’s go in, it’s cold outside.”

Since Zhang Fan had received so many gifts over the New Year’s holiday, he sold off all the smoke cartons he had accumulated so far and made quite a bit of money. Since he already had a cell phone, he mailed the Apple cell phone to his younger sister, and then wired some money to his parents.

Zhang Fan spent New Year’s Eve at the hotel in Chasu City. Although this was rather pitiful, Zhang Fan had adamantly refused Wang Qian’s invitation to spend New Year’s Eve at her home. He felt that it would be completely improper for him to spend New Year’s Eve and get in the way of someone else’s family gathering!

After the New Year was over and the hospital resumed normal work shifts, Batu posted Kuake City Hospital’s list of individuals who would get to study and improve their skills at a better hospital. Four slots were allotted to Kuake City Hospital, with one each for internal medicine, surgery, gynecology, and pediatrics. Zhang Fan was given the slot for the surgery category, while for the other three categories, the department directors were given this chance.

Zhang Fan didn’t know anything about surgery department #1’s reaction, but everyone in surgery department #2 was fine with this... except for Yang Chengming, who was quite angry. Batu had promised Vice Director Shi Lei that he would get to go in the next round. Chen Qifa had failed to obtain a medical license after so many tries already, so he no longer cared about improving himself. Meanwhile, Tu Xun believed that he was quite skilled already, and that he had no need to improve himself.

Kuake City’s Bureau of Public Health only allotted six studying slots to Kuake City. The other two slots were given to Kuake City Chinese Medicine Hospital, which was a smaller sub-hospital split off from Kuake City Hospital. Two recent college grads had also joined Kuake City Chinese Medicine Hospital last year. One of them was the son of the Vice Director of the Bureau of Public Health—this fellow’s father had helped him to join the Chinese Medicine Hospital’s orthopedic surgery department.

This fresh college grad also wanted to have the chance to study elsewhere and further improve himself. However, he was unable to compete with the two department directors who received the slots instead. Besides, if he wanted to stay at this hospital in the future, he couldn’t afford to have a bad relationship with the department directors. After all six names for the slots were determined, when his father looked over the list, he removed Zhang Fan’s name, and put his son’s name in the sixth slot instead.

The border province was viewing this studying opportunity for its doctors with great importance. The head politician of each city was personally in charge of this matter, which was why Kang Hua received the list of six names. For such a matter, Kang Hua would typically sign off on the list without even glancing at the names, but ever since Zhang Fan helped cure her back pain, she started paying more attention to Kuake City Hospital. When she looked over the list, Zhang Fan’s name wasn’t there contrary to what she had expected.

“Superintendent Batu, how many candidates did your hospital name? Isn’t Zhang Fan going?”

“He is supposed to go. Our surgery department nominated Zhang Fan,” Batu said depressedly.

“Alright, I got it.” Kang Hua realized what was going on. It was obvious that since Zhang Fan was just an outsider recent college graduate, someone else had used their power to steal his slot.

“Little Tang, call the Director of the Bureau of Public Health over to my office.”

Later, the Director of the Bureau of Public Health wiped away his sweat as he exited Kang Hua’s office. He had immediately realized what happened right after seeing the list as he recognized the name of the Vice Director’s son on the list. No wonder Kang Hua had been so angry, scolding him for being so shamelessly corrupt! He felt so aggrieved, taking the blame for something he didn’t even do.

“You f*cking caused this trouble for me! Why the hell did you change the city hospital’s name list? Why the hell did you think you could put your son on the list? Do you think that the Bureau of Public Health is your personal family business!? Our City Leader was so angry at me today! Change that list back immediately! After you change it, personally bring it over to Leader Kang Hua!” The Director of the Bureau of Public Health vented his anger on the Vice Director right after he returned.

The Vice Director almost fainted out of shock. The issue of a newly arrived college student actually made the head politician of Kuake City so angry!

“Superintendent Batu, I’d like to ask you a question. Zhang Fan from your hospital’s surgery department must have quite a background? He actually managed to be nominated for this chance to study in his first year of work?” Although the Vice Director no longer dared to nominate his son, he was still quite unwilling to nominate Zhang Fan.

Batu immediately understood what was going on with this question as he was quite smart.

“Zhang Fan? He’s really incredible. I heard that he’s the son of a high-ranked official from their province with incredibly deep connections, more solid than steel. Leader Kang Hua personally told me that I should nominate him for this studying opportunity. What, does the Bureau of Public Health have a problem with our name list? Should I call Leader Kang Hua right now?” Batu was intentionally trying to deal a blow to the Vice Director here. This was because the Vice Director was one of Batu’s main competitors for the position of Director of the Public Bureau of Health that Batu wanted.

“High-ranked official, the hell? F*ck, deep connections? Why don’t you f*cking say that he’s from the Beijing government?” The Vice Director was filled with anger after hanging up his call with Batu.

The Vice Director couldn’t help it. Not only could a provincial official outrank him severely, even his direct boss, the Director of the Bureau of Public Health, was more than enough to suppress him completely. He wouldn’t even be able to keep his career if he dared to go against the City Leader. “Why is this world so unfair!!” However, it seemed that the Vice Director had completely forgotten about his own nepotism.

Now that the proper name list was confirmed, the government soon issued the official documents. All the named people would be going to Bluebird City on January 17th for furthering their medical studies. Kang Hua would be leading this group, and Batu even managed to become the group’s sub-leader.

Kang Hua and Batu led the study candidates to a train that took them to Bluebird City. Kang Hua and Batu instead directly took a plane to Bluebird City to meet with the head politician there.

The Beijing government wanted to improve the overall level of culture, education, and health in the western border provinces, which was why the government spent so many resources supporting fresh college students to go to the far west of China. However, it would be difficult to keep the talented individuals there. It was common for most people who went through this program to leave their jobs in the border provinces after just one or two years, so the effects of this program weren’t that good.

This time, the Beijing government decided to try a different method—to improve the overall medical level of the locals. This was the first time that the government was trying this program to improve the overall medical level in the border provinces, so great importance was placed on it. The Beijing government gave Bluebird City a command that they had to successfully train an excellent top-quality team of doctors for the border provinces.

Bluebird City was a rather large city in the north which also bordered the sea. The medical level of this city was quite high. Zhang Fan and the others would receive the opportunity to study and work in the largest hospital in Bluebird City: Bluebird City University Affiliated Hospital, or BCU Hospital for short.

This was early 2009. The trains were still quite slow back then. It took more than 50 hours before Zhang Fan and the others finally arrived in Bluebird City. Compared to the border province, this place was far warmer, although the wind was about the same with the sea breeze.