Chapter 100: Third wheel, fourth wheel

Zhang Fan called Shao Hua after everything regarding the skin graft surgery was finished. He learned that she had finished work and returned home already, which made Zhang Fan feel reassured that she was safe. Originally, he had been having fun eating together with his friends, but the meal was interrupted by the surgery, and he was now really tired. He returned to his apartment, took a quick shower, and instantly went to sleep.

Zhang Fan only had two weeks remaining for his rotation in the dermatology department. He intended to request vacation time off right after this rotation was finished. With all of his saved-up vacation days that he had never used before, he would be able to visit his home for about a month. He wanted to find an opportunity to tell Shao Hua about this.

Thankfully, with Shao Hua around whenever Zhang Fan wasn’t working, he no longer felt so homesick. As the classical saying went, having a girlfriend would make a man forget about his mother.

Zhang Fan had now been working for other hospitals as a surgeon available for hire for six months now. He was now relatively known at all the city level hospitals. Not only was he cheap to hire, he would always split half of the surgery fee given to him with the other doctors at the hospital.

The local doctors here wouldn’t care so much if the hired doctor was a department director or not. As long as you could succeed in the surgery, and also give the local doctors some money, that would be enough for them. The surgical director of the nearby Carte City phoned Zhang Fan, asking him if he would be willing to come over this weekend to perform three laparoscopic surgeries.

Zhang Fan was quite happy to perform more surgeries. Not only would it increase the amount of surgeries for grinding experience points in his system, it would also increase his income. He had been spending more money recently. Although Shao Hua had said that the two of them were supposed to take turns paying money for meals, now that their relationship was becoming ever closer, Zhang Fan had mostly taken over paying for the meals.

Back when he was still single, he simply ate at the hospital cafeteria every day. The hospital had a 400 yuan food allowance for the doctors every month at the cafeteria, and the cafeteria food was alright and cheap. 400 yuan was plenty enough for a doctor to eat at the cafeteria for the entire month. But, it would be impossible to romance someone if you had absolutely no money! Thankfully for Zhang Fan’s finances, Shao Hua didn’t care too much about what type of restaurant they ate at. Her only requirement was that the food had to be clean. Zhang Fan really wouldn’t have been able to afford pandering to Jia Suyue’s palate.

Zhang Fan continued performing regular biweekly checkups for the children of the sports school. His physical exams and massage treatments for the children proved highly effective. Over the past six months, the children had noticeably less pains and aches. They all knew now whom to go to for sports injuries. In fact, Zhang Fan was the only doctor in all of Chasu City who was a specialist in sports injuries.

“I have a senior who used to play basketball. He’s currently a basketball coach. Back in the day, he injured his knee while playing. Could you give him a checkup when you have time? Your surgery for Guli was really amazing. At the time, I was worried that she would never be able to become a professional athlete for the rest of her life, but now, she’s recovered fully and there’s zero aftereffects whatsoever,” sports teacher Wu Yanchao said to Zhang Fan after the latter finished today’s checkups for the children.

“No problem. Just have him contact me.” Zhang Fan was quite fond of the children here at the sports school. They were all really boisterous and lively. Spending an afternoon with them was great for stress relief.

This weekend, Zhang Fan wanted to take Shao Hua to visit Carte City, which was approximately 100 kilometers away from Chasu City. Chasu City was the largest city in the nearby area, with many smaller satellite cities around it. There was a large patch of primeval forest around Carte City. Although Shao Hua was a native of Chasu City, born and raised there, she had actually never visited Carte City before.

Zhang Fan figured that he could finish the three laparoscopic surgeries by noon if he started working early in the morning. That way, he could tour Carte City together with Shao Hua in the afternoon, and then drive back to Chasu City before it got dark. Although Zhang Fan felt that he had a really nice plan, when he actually called Shao Hua on Friday, Jia Suyue overheard him because she was currently out having fun together with her good friend Shao Hua.

“I want to go as well! I haven’t been to Carte City in so long. The scenery there is so beautiful! We can stay there at a hotel for the night!” Jia Suyue was totally unreserved in inviting herself along as well. Still, there was actually a benefit to this: with her along, Shao Hua’s parents felt more reassured in agreeing to let their daughter go with Zhang Fan. This in a way created a chance for Zhang Fan.

Although Jia Suyue would be a third wheel, Zhang Fan had an idea. He summoned Wang Yanan over. “I’m going to perform a few surgeries in Carte City this weekend. Would you like to come along with me? They’re general surgeries. There won’t be any downsides to you watching and learning something new.”

“Sure, I’ll go. I’ve never been rotated into a general surgery department before, though. Will I embarrass you by tagging along? Will the doctors in Carte City laugh at me?”

“Relax, it won’t be a problem at all.”

Now that Wang Yanan had agreed to go along with him, that meant Jia Suyue had another friend she could hang out with, which also meant that she would no longer need to constantly hang around with Shao Hua. When Zhang Fan told Shao Hua that he had also invited their mutual friend Wang Yanan to come along, Shao Hua giggled, and said, “I never knew before that you were such a schemer.”

“Haha! There’s no helping it, I was forced into becoming a schemer.” Zhang Fan understood that Shao Hua wouldn’t have it easy with one of her best friends on one side and her semi-boyfriend on the other side. Besides, Zhang Fan had only gotten acquainted with Shao Hua because of Jia Suyue, so the latter was their matchmaker in a sense.

On the weekend, Zhang Fan first finished checking up on the dermatology department’s patients, and then drove over to pick up Shao Hua and the other women. Since there would be a lengthy drive, the women had all gathered together at Shao Hua’s place beforehand. Although Zhang Fan could have simply parked in front of the apartment building and phoned the women to come down, he instead went up to greet Shao Hua’s parents. This was a matter of etiquette and respect. He didn’t want to be seen by her parents as behaving too casually.

“Have you eaten breakfast yet?” Shao Hua’s mother inquired. As a matter of fact, Zhang Fan had only gone out for his daily morning jog, and then immediately checked on his patients. He hadn’t eaten anything yet.

“I haven’t!” Zhang Fan smiled rather awkwardly.

“Please have a seat and drink some water. I’ll go cook you breakfast right now. It’s bad for you not to eat breakfast. Not only that, you’re going to Carte City to perform some surgeries. You’ll collapse if you work that long without eating. Dear husband, bring out the sausages and I’ll cook them.”

“There’s truly no need for that, Ma’am. I can just eat something along the way. We’re in a hurry here as Carte City Hospital is waiting for me.”

“Let’s hurry things up, then. Just go boil two eggs for him and steam a bun. Little Zhang is quite busy,” Shao Hua’s father told his wife.

Wang Yanan and Jia Suyue were quite astonished to hear this short exchange. Jia Suyue secretly whispered to Shao Hua, “Isn’t this a bit ridiculous? He’s already just like a part of your family, as if he’s already married to you! Won’t you reconsider?”

Shao Hua didn’t say anything, but she pinched her friend Jia Suyue. She then brought out chopsticks, salted vegetables, and some salted preserved duck eggs for Zhang Fan to eat. She now knew that it was likely for emergency situations to occur at any time for doctors. She wanted Zhang Fan to eat his fill for breakfast, and then she would prepare some non-perishable foods to take on the car so that Zhang Fan could eat something in a hurry if he needed to.

Jia Suyue watched the busy Shao Hua and felt that her friend really was beginning to act like Zhang Fan’s wife. Jia Suyue then suddenly wondered if it was time for her to have a family of her own. She also wanted to prepare breakfast for the person she loved. Meanwhile, Wang Yanan was the coarser type. She was trying to figure out how Zhang Fan and Shao Hua’s relationship seemed to have progressed so rapidly.

There weren’t too many benefits to owing a Jeep Grand Cherokee. It wasn’t a very well-known car in China. However, it was quite a useful car in rural western China. The roads here were often unpaved, but the Jeep Grand Cherokee was able to drive over most rough terrain, although it would be a little bit jolting for the passengers inside.

All three women sat in the back of the Jeep. They had been quite talkative right after leaving Chasu City, but they all now looked a little pale due to the constant jolting.

It was almost 9 am by the time that Zhang Fan arrived at Carte City Hospital despite his hurrying. Why did he have to try and arrive in the morning? That was because the laparoscopic surgery patients weren’t allowed to eat before the surgery. If the surgery was performed too late, then the other patients scheduled for laparoscopic surgeries later in the day might faint from hunger. For elective surgeries like these, fluid injection would typically only begin half an hour before the surgery. That was why it was important to begin early.

The good part was that Carte City Hospital had already fully prepared everything for Zhang Fan. The first patient was already fully ready for the surgery. Zhang Fan checked over the patient’s medical information, discovered no problems, and agreed to begin the surgery.

However, Zhang Fan still lacked experience. In order to perform a surgery properly, no matter if it was an elective surgery or not, it would always be critically important to check on the patient first before beginning the surgery. The patient’s medical information sheets were only supposed to assist the surgeon for the surgery, after all.

For a laparoscopic surgery, the surgical assistant’s primary job would be to hold the laparoscope mirror properly for the surgeon. Carte City Hospital’s doctors hated doing this job. They felt that it was too simple and boring. Yet, they were incapable of performing more difficult surgeries. Thus, Carte City Hospital’s doctors became lazier and lazier in the end.

The good thing about Wang Yanan was that she really loved surgery. No matter if it was orthopedic surgery or not, she loved all sorts of surgeries. This was something ingrained in her. Being successful in any job wouldn’t be because of hard work in the end. Rather, how much you liked the job would be the most important. If you didn’t like your job, you would never reach the peak no matter how hard you worked.

This was Shao Hua’s first visit to Carte City. Zhang Fan didn’t want to just perform surgeries here and hurriedly return, so he had already asked Carte City Hospital to help reserve some hotel rooms for him. Zhang Fan and Wang Yanan would work on the three surgeries, while Shao Hua and Jia Suyue would put everyone’s stuff in the hotel and then go out exploring Carte City together.