Path of Medicine With a System

Many former rotation doctors had now been permanently assigned to various departments. Although it was Monday, a majority of hospital departments were preparing for departmental meals together afterwards in order to welcome their new coworkers. Maybe this wasn’t as common in other professions, but in the medical profession, especially in surgical departments, teamwork was highly valued. Doctors would really value their assistants or helpers. Otherwise, even a super skilled doctor would be angered to death if they were assigned three completely incapable surgical assistants.

Meanwhile, a skilled surgical assistant wouldn’t be much lower in skill level than a primary surgeon. A surgeon would need to maintain a good relationship with their surgical assistants. This was why resident doctors were one step above rotation doctors in the hospital’s hierarchy. Rotation doctors weren’t necessarily going to remain in the department. That was why a department’s doctors would always treat them as outsiders. The department’s doctors wouldn’t feel the need to maintain a good relationship with rotation doctors. That was why many rotation doctors would feel quite awkward during rotation, feeling that they were outsiders. That was absolutely correct: they were indeed outsiders!

Rotation doctors who became resident doctors after being permanently assigned to a department were different. Although resident doctors were still the older doctors’ competitors, the resident doctors would help the older doctors most of the time. The doctors could trade work shifts with each other, and they would also help each other in critical moments. This all required maintaining a good relationship with each other. If a doctor wasn’t good at getting along with others, then they wouldn’t be able to succeed no matter how highly skilled they were. It would be possible to become greatly successful in many other job fields even if you worked alone, but working alone in the field of surgery was something absolutely impossible.

It should be mentioned that of Qiu Fazu’s four major disciples, the members of Old Huang’s surgery medical team were now known as divine existences! Old Zhong, Old Hu, and the others also had super medical teams of their own. The leading doctors in these teams were all doctors who would be ranked top three in each of their provinces! These provinces would even be provinces which ranked at the top for medical skill!

So, as long as a doctor became a resident doctor, and as long as the department had an alright atmosphere where the director was able to keep things under control without anything going overboard, resident doctors would feel a tremendous difference in treatment compared to rotation doctors.

Director Gao had given Zhang Fan his own medical team. Although Director Zhao was nominally in Zhang Fan’s team as well as backup, he actually felt quite reassured leaving any orthopedic surgery to Zhang Fan. This was Director Gao’s way of letting Zhang Fan polish his skills through surgery. Zhang Fan would also slowly polish his character and way of leading a medical team here. Director Gao was truly planning things meticulously for Zhang Fan’s future. This wasn’t for the sake of any fame or benefits. It was all because of admiration for Zhang Fan’s talent. Zhang Fan truly was incredibly lucky. He had a teacher like Gao Shijun willing to help him with everything as much as possible in the critical early years. Director Gao would be able to help block off countless unnecessary troubles for Zhang Fan!

Director Gao went to go perform outpatient services. Orthopedic department #1 began its regular work for the day.

The three orthopedic departments constantly stole patients from each other. Even in the same department, the doctors would steal patients from each other. For example, if the doctor who first saw a patient that required knee replacement surgery was incapable of performing the surgery, or if the lead doctor of that medical team didn’t know how to perform knee replacement surgery, then the other doctors in the department would go to war. The battles of intelligence and emotional intelligence would never end. Still, there was an imaginary line that the doctors would never cross.

Wang Yanan’s only remaining special right in orthopedic department #1 was that she had a computer that counted as hers. No other doctor would use her computer. Thus, Wang Yanan would keep many of her personal items—such as books, water cups, and so on—on that desk.

Xue Fei was an attending physician, so he rarely wrote his own medical reports by now. Of course, according to China’s three-level hierarchical medical system, Xue Fei was ranking higher than resident doctors Zhang Fan and Wang Yanan. However, Xue Fei understood quite well that Director Gao had assigned him to Zhang Fan’s team as Zhang Fan’s assistant. There wasn’t any substance to his ranking higher than Zhang Fan! Xue Fei knew quite well what his own position was.

“Zhang Fan, go ahead and sit here. It’s not our turn to take patients today. There’s also no surgeries scheduled for us today. Let me tell you, I was so pitiful when you’re weren’t around, the patients…” Wang Yanan pulled Zhang Fan over to the desk next to hers and began chatting about how much bullying she had received over the past year. Of course, she didn’t mention a thing about when she bullied others.

Wang Yanan would steal simpler surgeries from other doctors, while others would steal her more difficult surgeries. It was basically an even trade.

Today was Zhou Chengfu’s medical team’s turn to accept new patients. Zhou Chengfu was feeling a severe amount of pressure. Two really amazing young doctors had recently joined orthopedic department #1. Zhou Chengfu could no longer see any future for himself.

Of course, if Zhou Chengfu was content with remaining as a regular doctor, it would be no problem for him at all to have other amazing doctors in the department. He would have even been happy to have really skilled doctors around.

However, Zhou Chengfu had the ambition of wanting to become a department director himself in the future. That meant Zhang Fan would become an insurmountable mountain when in the same department. Even without Zhang Fan around, the graduate student Xu Xian was also highly skilled. Not only was Xu Xian the steady and reliable type, his foundational knowledge was incredibly solid. He had practiced orthopedic surgery for three years at the provincial hospital. His orthopedic surgery skills were just about equal to Zhou Chengfu’s. That was why Zhou Chengfu decided to give up on orthopedic department #1 and think about transferring to orthopedic department #3 after Zhang Fan joined as well.

Although Zhang Fan was supposedly sitting down while listening to Wang Yanan complain about her hardships, he was actually in his System practicing surgeries. He had already finished enough orthopedic surgeries for his System’s level 1 courses. He was already more than half finished with the traumatic injury and microsurgery experience requirements for level 2. That was the benefit of Zhang Fan having his own hand and foot surgery hospital. He figured that he would finish the experience requirements within half a year or so. He needed the most experience for joints surgery and spine surgery under orthopedic surgery. He had less than one-third of the required experience.

He was far from even close to completing the experience requirement for general surgeries yet. The experience bars were mostly empty. Orthopedic surgery was quite simple, with only a few categories. Yet, there were countless categories under general surgery.

Zhang Fan sighed as he exited his System. Wang Yanan was still complaining about her hardships over the past year. She was really aggrieved with all her stress over the past year. She had worked her hardest to prove herself amongst a group of men. Now, she finally had someone she trusted by her side. Not only that, Zhang Fan was also her support. That was why Wang Yanan wasn’t as icy as usual, and gossiped far more than she normally would.

Zhang Fan was more worried about the surgery experience that he still needed to grind. Was he supposed to simply wait? Zhang Fan would never just wait. He used to have to worry about this and that, but now he was well-known and quite respected within the hospital. Things were different now that he was known well. There was no longer any need to hold back. Chasu City Hospital’s orthopedic surgery departments were just like the warring states period. Everyone was fighting over patients. Zhang Fan would never just sit back.

He would fight for himself as well!

“Xue Fei! Come over here! Let’s have a little team meeting.” Zhang Fan ignored Wang Yanan who was still chattering. He exited his System and summoned Xue Fei over.

“A meeting? Should we invite Director Gao as well? He’s still the team leader of this medical team in name!” Xue Fei was always a jokester. He could be quite shameless. Even though he and Zhou Chengfu had joined Chasu City Hospital at the same time, and the two even had the same teacher, Zhou Chengfu was far more skilled now. Zhou Chengfu was even ambitious enough to aim for the position of department director. Yet, Xue Fei was the type who didn’t care about such things. He only wanted to have fun. There was no right or wrong with either man’s preferred way of living. Everyone was different!

“Alright, let’s stop joking around now. Have you been losing badly at mahjong recently?” Zhang Fan inquired. There was no helping it. That was how medical teams at Chinese hospitals worked. There had to be an attending physician, second-highest level certification doctor, or a vice director/director leading the medical team.

Xue Fei joining this team had advantages and disadvantages for Zhang Fan. The advantage was that Xue Fei was easy to get along with. He would be fine with either working or not working on any surgery. He would do whatever he was told.

The disadvantage was that Xue Fei was too easygoing. If Director Gao and Zhang Fan weren’t around, Xue Fei would definitely let other doctors steal away all their patients. That was why Zhang Fan could only rely on himself. Gao Shijun was the director, so he had lots of other work to do. He also couldn’t be seen to be favoring Zhang Fan too much.

“Haha, why are you asking? Are you going to loan me money?”

“Be careful that I’m going to tell on you to your wife,” Wang Yanan remarked. She was definitely Zhang Fan’s staunch ally. Facing outsiders, the three members of Zhang Fan’s medical team would be united. When it was just the three of them, she was Zhang Fan’s disciple, so she would never allow Zhang Fan to suffer anything.

“You little brat, so ungrateful. I always help you out!” complained Xue Fei.

“You can barely even protect yourself!”

“Alright, alright! Let’s not fight amongst ourselves. I have something to say, okay?” Zhang Fan hurriedly stopped the other two from arguing. Otherwise, the arguing would be endless!

“It’s like this. I’m thinking that since I was just permanently assigned here, I want to get back into shape. I want to get some extra patients, as many patients as we possibly can get.” Zhang Fan then glanced at the other two.

Wang Yanan had stars in her eyes. She truly loved surgery!

Meanwhile, Xue Fei was more hesitant. He was much lazier. He would always run fastest when it was his turn to receive money, but would also hide faster than anyone when it was time to work!

“Brother Xue, you probably can’t even afford mahjong that gambles 10 yuan each round anymore. You still don’t want to work? Once you increase your number of surgeries, you can go play 20 yuan mahjong rounds instead!” Zhang Fan could only try and coax Xue Fei as if the latter was a young child.

“Alright, I’ll listen to you. However, I’m not going to write any medical reports. I’m already an attending physician. You two look around. What attending physician in our department will write their own medical reports?”

“Zhang Fan’s already a primary surgeon, while you—” Wang Yanan also didn’t like writing medical reports. It was rare for any surgeon to enjoy writing medical reports.

“We’ll split the earnings from each surgery 70/30. Whoever works on the surgery will receive 70%, while the person who writes the medical report will receive 30%. This rule will continue even if a rotation doctor joins our medical team.” Zhang Fan decided to immediately start making rules. Otherwise, it would be bad if people in his medical team constantly fought over small amounts of money.

“Isn’t that a bit too much money for the person writing the medical report? What about Director Gao’s portion?” Xue Fei asked while secretly looking all around him.

“Director Gao probably won’t want anything. Have you ever seen him lead a medical team before? It’s not too much money for the person writing the medical report at all. If you’re willing to write every single medical report for our whole team, I’m even willing to give you 50% instead.” Zhang Fan understood Director Gao’s intentions. Zhang Fan had become smarter and matured. He was no longer just a mere rotation doctor. If he wanted to go far down his path, although skills were important, knowing how to interact with others was even more important. Writing medical reports for Zhang Fan’s team would definitely be a boring and difficult job with the high number of surgeries that Zhang Fan planned to do.

“Forget it! I won’t write any medical reports. What are we going to do about Director Gao, then?” Xue Fei asked so many useless things.

“Then should we give half to Director Gao?” Zhang Fan asked intentionally.

“Let’s forget about that. You can decide. However, let me remind you not to anger him if you really don’t give him anything. Three regular doctors like us won’t be able to handle a director’s anger.” Although Xue Fei really liked money, he was a nice person as well. Normally, people wouldn’t give such reminders.

“It’s fine. I know what I’m doing.”

“Yes, I agree with Zhang Fan.” Wang Yanan raised her hand.

“I’m going to hit you!” Xue Fei made a funny face at Wang Yanan, which meant ‘Your agreement means nothing!’ This made Wang Yanan unhappy.

“Alright! Okay already!” Zhang Fan was really feeling a headache from this. His coworkers in orthopedic department #1 were different from his coworkers at his hand and foot surgery hospital. Zhang Fan was the undisputed ruler of his own hospital. Nobody there would dare to go against him. However, things were quite different here. Zhang Fan had to console the others and slowly train them!

“Stop arguing, you two. Especially you, Yanan. Study more medical textbooks and don’t mind him. I’m going to look around the department and see if I can get some surgeries.”

“I definitely won’t argue with him.”

“Who would care about what you say!”

Zhang Fan shook his head as he left. He first went to visit orthopedic department #2. He would need to greet the other orthopedic directors. Although orthopedic department #2’s Director Wang Dehua was rather strict, he treated Zhang Fan quite well. Besides, Zhang Fan was going to start stealing patients, so he needed to pay a visit here and stop Director Wang from saying anything.

“Director, how come you’re not performing surgery right now?” Zhang Fan joked after he entered Director Wang’s office.

“You little brat. I have a meeting in a bit. What are you here for?” Director Wang was feeling rather displeased that Zhang Fan didn’t get assigned to his orthopedic department #2, so his attitude towards Zhang Fan was a bit strange.

“I’m here to see you since I’ve been permanently assigned to a department.” Zhang Fan smiled, and then immediately poured some tea for Director Wang without even being asked to. Zhang Fan then poured some tea for himself. Director Wang’s mouth arched upwards as he watched this. He was happy that Zhang Fan was still acting casually with him. Director Wang definitely would have been far more unpleasant to Zhang Fan if the latter acted formal with him. This was how relationships worked. This was how to get along with others.

“It’s as if you’ve come home. Say it, what business do you have with me?”

“It’s honestly nothing at all. I’m just here to visit you. Director, I’ve recently gained some understanding about the spine. Perhaps you could give me some guidance one day?” Without counting Zhang Fan, Director Gao was the #1 joints specialist in Chasu City Hospital, while Director Wang was the #1 spine specialist.

“Tsk! I immediately knew what you wanted the moment that you spoke up. What, you want to reach over to my specialty?” Director Wang had been a director for many years already. He instantly realized Zhang Fan’s intention.

“Look at what you’re saying, Director! Would I dare without you saying anything? I really do have some understanding now. I’d like to try and realize things, but I don’t have a guarantee, so I’m here to ask for help!” Zhang Fan sipped on his tea while his eyes spun around.

Zhang Fan could only scam more surgeries by using a reasonable excuse. Director Wang was actually quite similar to Director Gao. Both of them really cared about medical skills.

“I can allow you to come over to orthopedic department #2 to perform spine surgeries, but you can’t steal them away to orthopedic department #1. I won’t budge on this. I didn’t worry about this at all before you were assigned to orthopedic department #1, as Old Gao’s subordinates aren’t capable of the difficult spine surgeries. However, things are different now that you’re around. I still have to protect my department and doctors, you know?” Director Wang didn’t treat Zhang Fan as a resident doctor. Rather, he treated Zhang Fan as an equal.

“Look at what you’re saying. Even I won’t be able to do such difficult spine surgeries. Director, please bring me to any such surgeries. Rest assured, I definitely won’t steal any spine surgeries!” Zhang Fan spoke quite seriously. He only cared about grinding surgeries for experience in his System rather than the financial benefits involved. That was why he needed to properly speak to the other directors. Zhang Fan only cared about how many surgeries he could perform.

“You brat! Sigh! Fine, just don’t bully the other doctors too much. What, Old Gao is letting you do as you please?”

“Haha, Director Gao is my backup doctor for my team.”

“He’s so sly.” Director Wang and Director Gao always competed with each other.

“Director, you must be busy, so I’ll be going back to work now. Your tea is quite exquisite!” Zhang Fan smiled as he got up.

“Little brat, you really know what to say. You can have it. I don’t have much of this tea left. It’s not possible to buy it in stores.” Director Wang seemed slightly unwilling as he tossed the jar containing the remaining tea leaves to Zhang Fan.

“Haha, then I won’t be reserved. Bye, Director!” Zhang Fan left with the tea leaves.

Director Wang smiled faintly as he watched Zhang Fan leave. Zhang Fan had respected him by greeting him first. It wasn’t like Director Wang could really do anything if Zhang Fan started stealing surgeries! However, that would sour the relationship between them if Zhang Fan did so without even greeting Director Wang first.

Actually, Zhang Fan knew nothing at all about tea. He had simply felt that this tea smelled nice, without realizing that it was actually a nice tea after all. Director Wang had even felt slightly pained about giving the tea leaves to him. But, this way their relationship would still be good.

Director Chen Qi of orthopedic department #3 was also doing well. Although his department was supposed to be focusing on microsurgery and traumatic injuries, he wasn’t able to develop microsurgery at all. Zhang Fan’s hand and foot surgery hospital was already beginning to monopolize the microsurgery market in Chasu City. Moreover, Director Chen’s subordinate doctors would endlessly complain about having to perform microsurgery. Still, the other orthopedic surgery types were doing well even without microsurgery development. Of course, this meant good income. Director Chen was in charge of things in his department, so of course he was doing well for himself.

“Hey! How are you doing, Bro?” Zhang Fan entered to see that Director Chen just happened to be making tea. Orthopedic department #3 didn’t do open surgeries on the joints or spine, so most surgeries were laparoscopic operations, leaving more free time for the director.

“Zhang Fan, hurry and have a seat. Taste this, it’s Hongpao brand, a special kind of tea.”

“Brother Chen, how you doing? Have you had many patients in your department recently?”

“Sigh! Only small surgeries. What, you don’t have any surgeries today?” Chen Qi thought things over and refrained from mentioning his patients. Zhang Fan being permanently assigned to orthopedic department #1 was like having a shark as a competitor. Of course Director Chen would be worried.

“I don’t have any patients, since I was just assigned to a medical team today.” Zhang Fan took a sip of the tea.

“Sigh, things are bad in orthopedic department #3. We barely have any patients. Sigh!” Director Chen began complaining.

Zhang Fan had passed by orthopedic department #3, and seen that there were so many patients that the department had even needed to add extra beds. This wasn’t barely any patients at all. Still, Zhang Fan couldn’t exactly do anything about Director Chen’s words.

“Haha, Brother Chen really knows how to joke with me. I won’t say anything about standard surgeries, but I’m intending to take all the emergency surgeries.” Zhang Fan went with the direct approach since Director Chen was so sly with words.

“You don’t want to live anymore? Why are you working so ridiculously hard? Director Gao isn’t retiring that soon, is he?” Chen Qi asked in confusion. He was of the opinion that others would be like him, interested in the position of department director.

“Haha, I just want to train my own skill level.”

“What, you have your own ideas?” Chen Qi pointed towards the ceiling. He was implicitly asking if Zhang Fan intended to leave here after improving his skills.

“I won’t lie to you, Bro. Yes, I want to see more of the world after my skills are polished.”

“Sigh! You have such ambitions. Alright, I won’t be a burden on you. Everyone can steal their own emergency surgeries. I won’t say anything if we can’t steal more than you. Let me tell you first, you’d better not hold any grudge against me, as I have to take care of my department’s doctors, you know?”

“Haha, look at what you’re saying. I’m simply here to tell you what I’m getting up to. I should be the one asking you not to hold a grudge against me.”

Zhang Fan then visited the emergency department after he left orthopedic department #3. Director Chen was quite sly. He would definitely be generous with loaning Zhang Fan money, but it wouldn’t be possible at all to get him to support Zhang Fan’s work if Zhang Fan wasn’t in his department. Yet, things were different if Zhang Fan went with the direct approach. It would then become professional competition. Zhang Fan had also stated the reason. It would have nothing to do with personal conflicts.

Of course, Zhang Fan didn’t need to explain himself, but if Chen Qi was willing to lose face and go complain to the superintendent that Zhang Fan was stealing patients, then that would make things harder on Zhang Fan.

“Director Zhang, you’re here to observe us?” The emergency department usually had less work during the day. Doctor Li of the emergency department was currently chatting with a beautiful nurse. He smiled and greeted Zhang Fan.

“Director Li here is worrying about our unmarried nurses!” Doctor Li was still unmarried. He was indeed romantically interested in this nurse. However, he now felt rather embarrassed because of Zhang Fan’s joke.

“Look at what rubbish you’re spouting. Why are you here, is there something you need?

“Where’s the emergency department director?”

“In her department office.”

“Director, are you busy?” Zhang Fan knocked on her office door, and then entered. She was currently looking over some paperwork.

“Not busy, not busy at all. Come, Doctor Zhang, have a seat. I heard that you’ve been permanently assigned now? Haha, nobody likes the emergency department. I even personally went to Superintendent Ouyang and asked her for you, but she wasn’t willing to send you to the emergency department.”

“Ha! The emergency department has too many patients of internal medicine. Maybe the superintendent felt that I wouldn’t be able to handle everything,” Zhang Fan commented as he sat down on a chair.

“You young brat, you’re so skilled with your words. What is it doay? Do you want me to mediate a fight?” The orthopedic departments were stealing patients from each other every day. The emergency department director figured that was probably why Zhang Fan was here today.

“Look at what you’re saying. It’s like this. If you have the free time, I’d like to treat you and everyone else in the emergency department to a meal. No matter what, you’re my teacher, so I really want to properly thank you.”

“Haha, alright. Let’s make it the day after tomorrow, then. You can invite everyone, but I’ll pay for the meal. You’re the first doctor who’s volunteered to treat me to a meal. I’m honored.”

“How could I possibly let you pay? That would be so rude of me. I’ll tell you about the time after I reserve the hotel.”

Zhang Fan ran to every single department that he needed to this morning, lowering his head to everyone and speaking nicely. He only had one objective: grinding as many surgeries as possible.

Zhang Fan returned to orthopedic department #1 to discover that three rotation doctors had been assigned to the department for their current rotation. Zhang Fan couldn’t count on Xue Fei, since today wasn’t their team’s turn to take patients, so it was likely that Xue Fei had skipped out on work to go play mahjong. Wang Yanan was currently telling the other attending physicians about how her team still lacked personnel. However, she was a low-ranking doctor, and her skills weren’t good enough yet, so she was unable to steal a rotation doctor for Zhang Fan’s team.

“Zhang Fan, they’re saying that our medical team doesn’t need a rotation doctor.” Wang Yanan was still slightly foolish as she loudly announced this to Zhang Fan. Saying it so loudly was a bit in violation of social etiquette.

Zhang Fan smiled, and replied, “Haha, of course we need more personnel. We’re both resident doctors, so our skills are limited. We need as much help as we can get. Of course we need more help.”

There was no helping it. He had to get involved so that his medical team could gain another member to help out!

Others calling themselves resident doctors would be considered humble. However, Zhang Fan calling himself a resident doctor was a face slap. After he said this, the attending physicians who were all trying to steal a rotation doctor for themselves all felt too embarrassed to steal one from Zhang Fan anymore. There was no helping it. Zhang Fan’s skills were far too amazing. Everybody had to respect his skills.

Orthopedic department #1 had two vice directors. One was Cui Pingjun, who was another disciple under the same teacher as Gao Shijun. Cui Pingjun’s personality was similar to Xue Fei’s. Both really liked to just have fun. Cui Pingjun really liked to go fishing and take photographs. Even though he had the second-highest level certification and was also the vice director, he didn’t care about office politics at all. He often led younger doctors in performing easier surgeries, and would occasionally watch over things for Director Gao at critical moments.

The other vice director was Wang Hao. He was four years younger than Director Gao, so even if he became director after Director Gao’s retirement, it was likely that Wang Hao would soon retire as well by then. His surgery skill level was alright. He also really liked to be in charge of management, so usually Wang Hao was in charge of orthopedic department #1’s paperwork, personnel arrangements, and so on.

Wang Hao had originally intended on giving the rotation doctors to the others since Zhang Fan was a low-ranking doctor. However, Zhang Fan just happened to come back at this time, and even requested a rotation doctor so directly. Wang Hao thus had to treat this seriously.

He knew that Zhang Fan’s abilities were likely even better than Director Gao’s. Still, Wang Hao couldn’t be seen as doing too much for Zhang Fan, as the latter was only a resident doctor. Thus, he decided to simply say, “Doctor Zhang’s medical team has few people in it, so Doctor Li can join their medical team.” Doctor Li was a young woman who had just started working as an intern doctor this year.

The other two rotation doctors were male doctors. This was Wang Hao’s way of making things fair for everyone. Although he gave Zhang Fan’s medical team an extra person, this rotation doctor was a female doctor who likely wouldn’t be suited for surgery. This was all because of Zhang Fan’s lack of rank!

Thus, Zhang Fan managed to lay the groundwork necessary for all the surgeries he wanted to do. Next would be only one word: grinding!

Zhang Fan had made all his preparations as if this was a battlefield or a race. He was going to run. He was going to run no matter if he had to run with a headwind or tailwind. He would run while gritting his teeth. He was doing this so that he wouldn’t regret things no matter if he succeeded or failed!