After the surgery was completed, Li Liang wrote the medical report. Zhang Fan told Chen Qifa and Wang Yanan that he needed to return to Chasu City.
Li Xiao wasn’t busy with work currently as winter was the slow season for her work. Whenever Zhang Fan called her and said that he was coming over, she would cancel any and all other plans to wait for Zhang Fan’s massage treatment.
Wang Yanan was still peeved about Zhang Fan driving by himself to Kuake City. “Why are you going back to Chasu City? We came here to Kuake City to work, not play.” She was trying to lecture Zhang Fan.
“Whatever, I have something to do there. I’ll be back again by this afternoon.” Zhang Fan didn’t want to listen, and was in a hurry to leave.
“The next time we come across a patient with a simple fracture, let me act as the main surgeon for once. Otherwise, I’m immediately going to call Chasu City Hospital and report you for skipping out on work.” Wang Yanan felt that she had grabbed an opportunity to minorly blackmail Zhang Fan. He performed surgeries far too quickly, so typically she could only perform the surgical sutures. After half a year of studying under him, she felt that she should be capable of operating on simple bone fractures now.
Zhang Fan chuckled. “Sure, but if you find that you can’t do it, don’t give up when you can’t finish the surgery by yourself. Let me say beforehand that you’re not allowed to cry.”
“Go to hell.”
There wasn’t much snow on the road right now, so it took Zhang Fan only slightly more than an hour to drive to Li Xiao’s home. Previously, Li Xiao was in such pain that she often couldn’t sleep. If it weren’t for how terrified of surgeries she was, she would have undergone a surgery long ago. Now that Zhang Fan was helping give her rehabilitative massages, and since the treatment was quite effective, she was truly grateful to Zhang Fan as she no longer required surgery.
Li Xiao chatted with Zhang Fan as she was being massaged. She was lying on her side, and the position she was in wasn’t very comfortable. Li Xiao remarked, “Your hospital’s Superintendent Huang Yun is about to retire soon. The new superintendent has already been decided to be Ouyang Hong. Should I mention to her beforehand that she should take extra good care of you?”
“Ah, so Vice Superintendent Ouyang is becoming the new superintendent? I thought that the other vice superintendent of general surgery was going to be the new superintendent. No, there’s no need to say anything.”
“Ouyang Hong is the personal doctor of the Chasu City Communist Party Committee Leader. She’s already been the Committee Leader’s personal doctor for more than three years. They have a good relationship with each other, which is why there’s no chance at all for that vice superintendent of general surgery.”
Zhang Fan was the first ordinary doctor to learn who the new superintendent was going to be before it was even announced. However, this information wouldn’t help him at all. Zhang Fan was completely uninterested in trying to make connections anymore like he previously would have been without his System. Now, he felt like he could simply rely on his skills to move up in life.
After Li Xiao’s massage treatment ended, she wanted to invite Zhang Fan for dinner. However, Zhang Fan refused as he wanted to return to Kuake City before it became dark outside. In winter, darkness would come quite early in the afternoon, and it would become more difficult to drive if it was dark.
When he returned to Kuake City Hospital, everyone’s regular day shift had already ended. He also received a phone call from Wang Yanan at this time. “Where are you? The superintendent of Kuake City Hospital is treating everyone to dinner. You’re the only person who’s not here. Hurry over immediately. The dinner is being held in the largest private room at Kuake City Hotel.”
Right after Wang Yanan hung up, Shi Lei also called Zhang Fan. “Doctor Zhang, I heard that you went to Chasu City. I’ll ask the servers to bring the food a little later than usual. Are you almost here yet? This welcoming dinner party can’t start without you.”
Shi Lei knew that Zhang Fan was highly skilled, so he was trying his best to get into Zhang Fan’s good graces. Zhang Fan hurriedly replied, “Vice Superintendent Shi, I’m almost there. There’s no need to wait for me. That would be too much.” Zhang Fan hurriedly drove over towards Kuake City Hotel. After he parked his borrowed car and got out, the fat hotel manager came out because he saw Zhang Fan. “Such a rare visitor. I heard that Doctor Zhang was transferred to Chasu City Hospital? I didn’t even get a chance to send you off. Such a breach of etiquette on my part. How many days are you staying here this time? You definitely have to let me treat you!”
Zhang Fan shook the fatty’s hand. Zhang Fan then smiled, and said, “There’s no need to be so polite with each other. How’s your knee doing? Are there any side effects?”
The fatty manager was all smiles. “My knee is wonderful. In fact, it’s even better than before. Since there’s metal plating inside it now, I feel as if I’ve become a cyborg. Alright, we can talk later. I don’t want to make you late to your dinner. Everyone from your hospital is in the largest private room. Let me take you there.”
The cold appetizer dishes had just arrived when Zhang Fan entered. Zou Pingshan stood up and smiled as he announced, “Our youngest expert doctor present has arrived. Zhang Fan, please sit by my side. I left this position just for you.” Li Hongtu was sitting to the right of Zou Pingshan, while Shi Lei sat next to Li Hongtu. It seemed that Zou Pingshan really had reserved his left side for Zhang Fan. “Superintendent Zou, you’re being too polite. I can just have a seat anywhere.”
“How could you just sit anywhere? Here, you’re like half a master. Not only that, you’re representing a higher-ranked hospital to come here and support us. You absolutely must sit here.” He then pulled Zhang Fan into the seat next to him. This made the two attending physicians from Chasu City Hospital’s internal medicine department rather unhappy. A low-ranking resident doctor like Zhang Fan was allowed to sit next to the superintendent and represent all of them? That was shameless sucking up to him! Had Zou Pingshan forgotten hospital social rules right after leaving Chasu City Hospital? It wasn’t that the attending physicians had objections to Zhang Fan’s sitting there. They were objecting to Zou Pingshan’s behavior because back when he was the director of the internal medicine department at Chasu, he would always talk about ranking, and was an extreme stickler for the rules.
Not long after Zhang Fan sat down, he received a call from Tang Jingjing. Since it was inconvenient for Zhang Fan to leave the party, he simply took the call right there. Tang Jingjing said, “Zhang Fan, I heard you’re back in Kuake City?”
“Yeah, Sister Tang. I just arrived today.”
“Oh, have you eaten yet? I’ll treat you to a meal.”
“I’m so sorry. The hospital is holding a welcoming party for us today. We’ve just begun eating.”
“Okay then, enjoy the food. City Leader wants to see you later. Contact me after you’re done with your meal.”
Zou Pingshan was sitting right next to Zhang Fan, so he heard all of Tang Jingjing’s words quite clearly. He knew that the city leader she spoke of was Kang Hua. However, he didn’t show any change in his expression or say anything about this.
The dinner party formally began. Zou Pingshan gave a short welcoming speech to everyone. However, he didn’t make Zhang Fan drink any alcohol tonight. He said that Zhang Fan shouldn’t drink, because he still needed to drive afterwards. But, if it weren’t for him overhearing this phone call, he definitely would have made Zhang Fan completely drunk. Although Zou Pingshan treated Zhang Fan quite warmly, that was only because he felt helpless to do anything otherwise. He was only being friendly to Zhang Fan due to the latter’s connections with higher-ups. Zou Pingshan would normally never pay any attention to a low-ranking resident doctor.
Since Zhang Fan didn’t have to drink any alcohol, Zou Pingshan focused fully on forcing Li Hongtu to drink. He and Li Hongtu had been colleagues of the same rank at one point before, but now, he was a hospital superintendent, and all the department directors would have to listen to his commands. Li Hongtu became completely drunk. He was forced into this because Zou Pingshan was too passionate about making him drink. However, Li Hongtu didn’t really mind. He rarely drank, and felt like he could relax on occasion now that he was in a rural city.
During the meal, Kuake City Hospital’s director of surgical department #1 vented his frustration by talking to Zhang Fan. “Superintendent Zou doesn’t support our surgical departments very much. The laparoscopes were only used a few times while you were still here, but now they’re doing nothing but gathering dust in the operating room.”
Zou Pingshan had been severely scolded by his superior right after he’d become the superintendent. That had made him feel so wretched that he concentrated fully over the past half a year on making sure that everything was properly run. All he wanted from the surgical department was that no medical incidents would occur. He was truly afraid of another incident happening. Zou Pingshan didn’t want to organize any studies of newer medical techniques or technologies. All he wanted was that everything was consistent and no incidents occurred. It didn’t matter to him that many of the doctors and even the director of general surgery were concerned about the hospital stagnating. Zou Pingshan had become a coward after the first incident.
Director Yang, the director of general surgery, Kuake City Hospital’s surgical department #1, continued complaining to Zhang Fan. “It’s much better now that you’re here. It’s winter, so we’re going to conduct a lot more surgeries because everyone’s eating more greasy foods. We’ll have a lot more appendectomies and gall bladder surgeries. Lead us in doing as many surgeries as you can. Laparoscopic surgeries are only going to become more common and useful in the future. Right now, whenever a patient hears our advice that they need surgery for an appendectomy or gall bladder surgery, they just leave and go to a better hospital for the surgery. It’s impossible for us to keep the patients here.”
After the dinner party’s conclusion, where several people had gotten drunk, Zhang Fan went up to the third floor of Kuake City Hotel to phone Tang Jingjing. “Sister Tang, the dinner party has finished. Is it convenient for City Leader to see me now?” Right as he said this, the third-floor suite door opened. Tang Jingjing looked around, and immediately saw Zhang Fan. She laughed, and said, “Hurry and come in. The city leader has finished her work and is just waiting for you.”
After Zhang Fan entered the room, Tang Jingjing had him take a seat. “City Leader is inside. I’ll go call her, so please wait for a short moment.”
Right after Tang Jingjing went further inside, Kang Hua came out. “Doctor Zhang, please make yourself at home. Have you been doing well recently? How long are you going to stay here in Kuake City this time?”
“I’ve been doing well. I don’t know the exact timeframe I’ll be staying here, because the higher-ups haven’t made any official announcements.”
“Yeah, the Communist Party Committee is worried about potential heavy snowfall this winter. The smaller city hospitals are ill-equipped to deal with such severe weather. Have you visited Sister Wang recently?” Kang Hua wanted to use the topic of Wang Qian to bring up Li Xiao.
“Yeah, I met her once before I came here, at President Li’s home.” Kang Hua naturally knew this already since she was calling Wang Qian on a daily basis recently. Zhang Fan addressed Li Xiao as President Li in more formal situations since she was the president of her own real estate company.
“Ah, is that so? How’s President Li been recovering recently? Is she still undergoing massage treatments?”
“She’s doing pretty well, but her treatments are still ongoing. I have to go back to Chasu City every afternoon and then return to Kuake City afterwards.”
“That’s good, then. Is the heating system working well in the apartment I loaned you? If it’s not warm, I’ll have Little Tang call the apartment management.”
Zhang Fan was still currently living in the apartment that Kang Hua had loaned him. “It’s pretty warm. Thank you for worrying about me.”
“It’s what I should do. By the way, the next time President Li goes to the provincial capital, if it’s convenient for you, could you please secretly let me know?” This was Kang Hua’s true goal.
“Oh, sure.” Zhang Fan was rather surprised by this. What was going on? Did Kang Hua want him to be some sort of spy?”
“Haha, I just want President Li to help me with something in the provincial capital, but I feel too awkward to ask her directly. So, whenever she next visits the provincial capital, it will be more convenient to make it look like I coincidentally met her there. I hope that you don’t mind, Doctor Zhang.”
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