Chapter 3: Receiving a System! Could it be that the heavens have finally started to favor him?
Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu
N City, the capital city of the border province, had a desert climate. Summers here were scorching hot, while winters were chillingly icy. Right when Zhang Fan got off the train, he felt the heat wave of summer.
Zhang Fan had already contacted Kuake City Hospital’s office. The hospital had helped to purchase the train and bus tickets for him as a small gift for him starting his job.
The bus was scheduled to leave at 6 pm. Zhang Fan had never traveled such a great distance before, so he didn’t dare to tour N City, fearing that he would get lost.
He picked a random restaurant near the bus station to eat dinner, and then rested in a chair in the waiting area.
Zhang Fan almost vomited when he got on the bus. The bus was air-conditioned, so the windows were locked. Since it was midsummer, all sorts of body odors, stinky feet, perfume, and so on mixed together. These bitter scents caused the goat meat Zhang Fan just ate to heave up and down in his stomach.
The highway leading to Kuake City was still under construction. The bus took a road filled with small pits, similar to the one near Zhang Fan’s hometown. Zhang Fan felt like his internal organs were about to fall out after a full night of being jostled up and down on the road.
After suffering for an entire night, he finally arrived in Kuake City. Kuake City Hospital director, Wang Hongmei, passionately welcomed Zhang Fan while picking him up.
Kuake City Hospital was on the outskirts of the city. The hospital was four stories tall, while a smaller two-story building next to it acted as the employees’ dormitory.
Zhang Fan was later to arrive than the other fresh graduates. Including him, there was a total of seven fresh graduates, four men and three women. Zhang Fan was the only one who was still single. The other six were already three couples who were in romantic relationship with each other.
These students were all fresh graduates from various medical schools in S Province. Some were from a university for ethnic nationalities, some were from a school focused on Chinese medicine, and some were from the same provincial medical school as Zhang Fan.
Everyone else had arrived one or two days ago. Hospital director Wang Hongmei then led everyone to the hospital superintendent’s office. The superintendent was named Batu. He was a Mongolian, whom Zhang Fan privately considered to physically resemble Putin.
“All of our new coworkers have finally arrived today. Once Zhang Fan has finished moving in, we’ll go later tonight to Kuake City Restaurant for a welcoming party to welcome all of our new coworkers!” Batu had a beaming expression as he welcomed everyone.
He then immediately spoke again to Wang Hongmei. “Notify all the department heads and head nurses about the welcoming party tonight. Also, bring some of the new nurses over. It’s perfect that tomorrow is the weekend, so take our fresh graduates to have fun out in the plains so that they can enjoy our beautiful scenery.” Batu’s words were filled with energy, and he used plenty of body language. He appeared to be a person used to being in a position of authority.
Zhang Fan’s assigned roommate was named Li Hui. The other two male medical students rooming together were named Guo Qiliang and Juma Bieke.
Guo Qiliang was from the Sibe ethnic minority, while Juma Bieke was from the Kazakh minority. Both had graduated from a medical school for ethnic minorities. Li Hui was ethnic Han, and had graduated from a medical school focusing on Chinese medicine. In order to be together with his college girlfriend, he had agreed with her that both of them would sign work contracts with Kuake City Hospital.
Since the three female medical students were already the girlfriends of Guo Qiliang, Juma Bieke, and Li Hui, Zhang Fan didn’t pay any attention to the girls. He could only wonder if he had a chance with the female hospital director, Wang Hongmei.
Li Hui was tall, skinny, and very friendly. He helped Zhang Fan to clean up his new bed. The bed had been newly purchased by the hospital.
Right after cleaning up, Li Hui brought out a famous cigarette brand from the border province and offered a cigarette to Zhang Fan.
Although Zhang Fan wasn’t a smoker, he didn’t refuse, as this was their first meeting, and they would be working together along with being roommates.
Li Hui lit up Zhang Fan’s cigarette, sat down on his own bed, and made a comment to Zhang Fan. “Hey bro, you graduated from a top school. How come you also came here to such a remote place?”
“What top school? Maybe people from other provinces don’t know, but you also graduated from a school in our L City. Don’t you know that my medical school was a third-rate school that was only absorbed into the top-level college this year? Please don’t joke around with me like that. So, are you focused only on Chinese medicine, or do you also do western medicine?” Zhang Fan chuckled as he responded.
“Both Chinese and western medicine. Not much of either, really. Sigh, it was such a headache. For my final exams, I had to take exams related to both Chinese and western medicine. But in the end, the only job openings I could find were only for western medicine, damn it all. Not only that, I only learned the basics of both Chinese and western medicine.”
“It’s all the same. I only learned western medicine, but I still only know the basics.”
“Which department are you intending on joining? Yesterday, I heard someone from the hospital say that all of their departments are really lacking in personnel, so we don’t need to take turns. We can just join whatever department we like. I think I’ll join the internal medicine department. How about you, Zhang Fan?”
Kuake City Hospital had two internal medicine departments. Internal department #1 was focused on breathing, digestion, and the heart. Internal department #2 was focused on internal secretions and infections. It was unknown why the hospital didn’t put breathing and infections together instead.
Li Hui had already done his research on Kuake City Hospital. He wanted to go to one of the internal medicine departments. If Zhang Fan also wanted to go to an internal medicine department, Li Hui would choose the one that Zhang Fan didn’t, out of deference to Zhang Fan technically having graduated from a top-level school.
“I’d like to go to the surgery department, especially orthopedic surgery.” Zhang Fan knew that his fundamental knowledge was only average at best. The internal medicine department would require a greater amount of fundamental knowledge.
After chatting for a while, Guo Qiliang and Juma Bieke also entered their room. After the four then started chatting, Wang Sha, who was Li Hui’s girlfriend, also came in.
“All of you are still chatting? Why haven’t you finished putting away your things? Director Wang just called me and told us to go downstairs. It’s about time for our welcoming dinner. Let’s go already.” Wang Sha was rather short, but had a pretty voice.
After hearing this, everyone hurriedly went downstairs. Two ambulances from the hospital were downstairs, waiting to take everyone to the restaurant.
Director Wang waved from one ambulance at everyone. “Let’s hurry up and get going. The superintendent has already set out.”
Superintendent Batu’s car was a brand-new Hyundai Elantra. If the hospital needed to receive an important figure like a politician on occasion, the superintendent would typically use his personal car to pick them up instead of an ambulance.
Kuake City Restaurant was a restaurant attached to a hotel chosen by the local city council. Any government organizations here typically would come to this hotel restaurant in order to treat their subordinates. After Zhang Fan and the others entered, they saw that many people were already sitting at the tables.
The medical students were all fresh graduates with very little experience in society. They had also almost never attended such parties before, so all of them stood there at the door, not knowing what to do.
Batu stood up while chuckling as he spoke to Director Wang. “Our dear lady in charge, please assign seats to everyone. Have the men and women sitting across from each other. There’s three couples, so please don’t make any mistakes with matching them.” Everyone chuckled along together with him.
The food arrived quickly. The main course arrived soon after the appetizers, but since the superintendent hadn’t said anything about eating yet, not a single person touched their chopsticks.
After the first main dish arrived, Batu raised his wineglass and gave a small speech. “No matter if you’re a veteran at our hospital or a fresh college graduate, being able to sit here together like this is a gift from the heavens. I hope that our veterans will help our new college graduates so that they can quickly improve at their jobs and become a part of our big family here at Kuake City Hospital. Let us use this glass of wine to wish that our new college graduates will find success in their jobs and lives here.” Batu then drank the wine in his wineglass.
Zhang Fan was filled with trepidation as he glanced at the filled wineglass in front of him. He almost never had alcohol, and even when he did, he only drank beer. He had never had white wine 1 before in his life.
According to the social custom in Kuake City, everyone was supposed to drink three glasses of wine before eating. After Zhang Fan drank three glasses of wine, everything that he saw began to swirl around him. Right when he picked up his chopsticks, intending on eating something to fight off the alcohol, he suddenly fainted as he collapsed and fell under the table.
Nobody here panicked as everyone was in the medical industry. Li Chengjun, the department head of internal medicine department #1, helped the unconscious Zhang Fan up and checked his pulse. Li Chengjun then chuckled while telling Batu, “The young man is simply drunk. He’ll be fine after going back to the hospital and receiving some hangover medicine.”
“It looks like our college students haven’t properly entered society. While they need to work hard, they also need to know how to drink alcohol. Little Chen, go ahead and take Zhang Fan to the emergency room.” Little Chen was the name of the ambulance driver.
After giving that order, Batu then raised his wineglass again. “Come now, young men and women. Drink another glass! How much you can drink represents how much you can work!”
On this night, all of the new college graduates were vanquished by the alcohol. It was just that Zhang Fan was the first to lose. Batu and the others had also intentionally made the college graduates drunk because they believed in the saying that one would reveal their true nature when drunk.
Zhang Fan had never had white wine before. He had drunk it too quickly, but he also woke up the quickest. When he woke up, he saw that he was lying on a bed in the emergency room, with all sorts of medical equipment around him.
Although he was awake now, he had a bad headache. Zhang Fan was about to get up and go to the bathroom, when a screen suddenly appeared in front of his eyes. The screen had a notification which read: [The Super Medical Support System is now binding itself to you. The System is now beginning to download information.]
Zhang Fan then fainted again as he felt dizzy once more.
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