Chapter 150: Surgery
Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu

Liu Wenli decided to cry! He felt like there was nothing else he could do about lung cancer. He stood by the side of Chasu River as endless tears streamed down his cheeks while he watched the river pour past him. He recalled memories from as much as 20 years ago as if they happened yesterday!

‘Just what should I do!’ He kept shouting that in his heart! He was as helpless as an old man now. He had been ambitious when he was a teenager; he had been courageous as a young man. However, he was now just like an old man despite only being in his early 40s. He had crippled himself with his own negative mentality!

His wife finally noticed that something seemed to be off about him! Although Liu Wenli was completely bald with only a few hairs remaining, he would always comb what few hairs he had neatly before going out. He liked to say, “As a teacher, one should present a proper appearance!”

But over the past few days, he no longer cared so much about his appearance. It also seemed like he was forcing himself to smile. Additionally, even though he usually didn’t have much patience for their son, he was now capable of silently watching his son for more than an hour at a time!

‘Something must be wrong!’ Liu Wenli’s wife was also a teacher who worked at an elementary school. Although she could be naggy, she was a kind person! Later that night, when she and her husband were in bed together, she slowly nudged up to him and touched his face only to find that his face was covered in tears!

“What’s the matter? Could you please tell me about it?” She didn’t turn on the light, because she knew that men hated having others see them at their weakest. This was a common problem to all men, no matter their age or status!

Ten or so minutes later, Liu Wenli finally said, “There’s something in my lungs! It doesn’t seem to be very good. If, if! If I die before you, feel free to find another husband! You’re still young! It’s just that our son will suffer!”

“Rest assured, everything will be alright. Let’s go to Chasu City Hospital tomorrow and make certain. If the diagnosis is confirmed, we can go to Beijing or to Shanghai! We can go to a major hospital in a big city. We can sell our home. Everything will be fine, don’t be afraid!” Liu Wenli’s wife cradled her husband’s head in her embrace as she spoke gently with a calm tone. Yet she also had a steely will!

According to Chinese myth, back when Goddess Nuwa created humans, she had been quite fair. Women were given weaker bodies but strong hearts, while men had strong bodies but much weaker hearts!

Men would typically go crazy or become depressed when faced with such calamities. As for women? They would silently proceed onward while bearing with the pain and difficulties! Women would bravely face the calamity! Sometimes, men truly couldn’t compare to women!

On the next day, Liu Wenli’s wife went to Chasu City Hospital and asked cardiothoracic Director Liu about her husband’s situation. They were currently speaking in the director’s office.

“Director Liu, are you absolutely certain of the lung cancer diagnosis?”

“In order to be absolutely certain, a biopsy and tumor marker test will be required. The biopsy will be the most reliable method. It’s really difficult to diagnose with certainty just with his MRI scan alone. Look here, although the outline is clear, it’s already spreading into leaflets. Not only that, the density is uneven. No matter if this is a benign or malignant tumor, it will absolutely need to be removed by surgery, and the faster the better!”

“Alright. Thank you for your hard work! I’ll discuss things with my family!” After leaving Director Liu’s office, Liu Wenli’s wife immediately started using all the connections she possibly could.

China was a country where having connections would make things far easier for you! Teachers would have better connections than most average people, as they could talk to their students’ parents, their own classmates, as well as relatives! Liu Wenli asked if anyone was familiar with the leader of Chasu City Hospital or cardiothoracic Director Liu! She mass texted many people, and several people started moving.

One of Liu Wenli’s current students had a father who was a mid-ranking employee of the Bureau of Health. The father was very familiar with Director Liu, and assisted with inviting Director Liu out for a meal for the same night.

Liu Wenli’s older cousin was a section chief at the Bureau of Industry and Commerce. He was the one who hosted the meal to treat Director Liu Boyan.

“As for his tumor, it’s not that I couldn’t explain clearly at the time, it’s that it’s truly impossible to be certain. Based on radiography, his tumor is irregular. It looks like a malignant tumor, but it also has many traits of benign tumors. That’s why it would be best for him to have surgery!”

“Allow me to ask something direct. Please don’t get angry, Director Liu. Honestly, it’s not easy for anyone to find out that someone in their family has cancer. My younger cousin’s family feels like the sky has collapsed on them,” Liu Wenli’s older cousin said while lowering his wineglass in deference to the director.

“Please ask what you like, you don’t need to be so formal with me!” Director Liu hurriedly sat up and clinked his wineglass against the cousin’s! The older cousin was from the Bureau of Industry and Commerce, and there was also someone from the Bureau of Health at the dinner, so Director Liu needed to give them face, even if they were only middle managers rather than the leaders.

“Then I’ll go ahead and ask. What hospital in China is best at performing this type of lung cancer surgery? I intend on taking my cousin to inland China to get treated. You understand, since Chasu City is a small place.”

“Okay! Then let me tell you the truth. It would be better for you to have your cousin treated at Chasu City Hospital. You have more connections here, so doing things will be much easier. Instead of moving your cousin, you should hire an expert doctor to come over to Chasu City Hospital. You’ll be able to hire an expert doctor from almost anywhere. But if you go to a major city, I dare say that it would be considered good if you could find an expert doctor who has free time in their schedule within half a year! Additionally, you wouldn’t even know for certain which doctor the hospital there will arrange for your cousin’s surgery. You can contact an expert doctor, and the doctor can fly over this weekend to perform the surgery at Chasu City Hospital. It will also be more convenient for you to watch over your cousin!” Director Liu gave them the best advice he could!

Actually, Director Liu was also capable of performing surgery to remove a lung cancer tumor. However, it was clear that the patient’s family wanted only the best care possible for Liu Wenli, to the extent of even inviting Director Liu to a meal. Thus, Director Liu gave such advice to the patient’s family instead. He figured it would be best to make them happy.

The advice that Director Liu gave them would be the most effective for families with slightly above average financial conditions. This would save the most time and spend the least amount of money while still being able to hire a high-level expert doctor. But as for the incredibly rich or politicians, this wouldn’t be necessary, because they would have special connections of their own! Finally, as for the poor, they could only hope that the local doctors were skilled enough to treat them!

In order to hire an expert doctor, the doctor would almost always be from either Beijing or Shanghai! The cost would be respectable, at about 30,000 yuan, not including the roundtrip airfare and hotel costs for the expert doctor.

Zhang Fan looked over Liu Wenli’s MRI scans and felt that there was no need to invite an expert doctor. He was quite capable of performing this surgery! However, Liu Wenli’s family refused to trust in the local doctors, so Zhang Fan decided to not do anything. It wasn’t like he was a merchant trying to make a sale.

Director Liu contacted the cardiothoracic department director of Zhongyong Hospital in Beijing. This director had previously been the department director even back when Director Liu was a student studying at Zhongyong Hospital. This director no longer performed surgeries as much in Beijing because his subordinates had already become skillful doctors. He would only work for five days a week at Zhongyong Hospital, with three days working as an expert consultant, one day working to treat regular patients, and one day in the cardiothoracic surgical department to advise doctors on surgeries.

On the weekend, this expert doctor would often fly all over China to various provincial hospitals and cancer hospitals to perform surgeries and then fly back to Beijing by Monday. For someone like him, he was already a VIP airline customer!

Liu Wenli’s school also placed great importance on his illness. The school’s Communist Party organization and student organizations all sent members to see how he was doing. There were also countless students and students’ parents who came over. So many flower baskets were arranged in Liu Wenli’s patient room! It was as if the hospital had become a flower shop.

The expert doctor arrived on the weekend! Liu Wenli’s older cousin borrowed a Mercedes Benz from one of his clients to pick up the expert doctor from the airport and drive him to Chasu City Hospital. When the expert doctor arrived, Zhang Fan took a look to see if he was one of the previous expert doctors from the emergency military patient surgery. Nope, Zhang Fan didn’t recognize this doctor!

The cardiothoracic expert surgeon wore plain clothing and a small backpack. He chuckled as he patted Director Liu on the back! “Not bad, Little Liu from back in the day has already become a director! Not bad at all!” Director Liu who typically acted somewhat proud seemed just like a young student! Director Liu really respected this expert doctor!

It wasn’t like the expert doctor’s arrival would bring him any benefits, whether they be financial or other types. Why was Director Liu still so respectful? This was a trait of those working in a field where skill was highly important. Director Liu wouldn’t act so humble even for the sake of the government leader of the border province! However, Director Liu’s dream was to become a renowned name in the field, just like this expert doctor! Well, it was only his dream, not his actual goal!

Who would join the surgery together with the expert doctor? Of course Director Liu would participate in the surgery, as he was the department director. This meant he would definitely take the position of primary surgical assistant. Who would be the secondary surgical assistant, then? The doctors in the cardiothoracic department were usually rather carefree. They rarely fought over anything other than the occasional patient with the orthopedic departments. The orthopedic department doctors were far too aggressive about taking patients!

But, today was different. This expert doctor was renowned as one of the best cardiothoracic surgeons in the entire world, not just China. Although it wouldn’t be possible to learn much from just participating in a single surgery together with him, it would be considered an honor to participate in the same surgery as someone renowned as a world-class surgeon.

The attending physicians really competed with each other for the position of secondary surgical assistant. There was a tense atmosphere in the department. Yet, Director Liu had been the department director for many years now, and knew how to calm things down. He couldn’t allow the department to remain in such a state just because of a single surgery. Small departments should have friendly atmospheres instead!

“Stop arguing with each other! Look at all of you good for nothings! This patient is Zhang Fan’s, so stop arguing!” Actually, Liu Wenli hadn’t been assigned to any specific doctor yet by the director. However, he didn’t want to be seen as favoring any specific doctor in the department, so he decided to give this opportunity to Zhang Fan instead, as Zhang Fan was only temporarily in the department!

Everyone had pitiful expressions as they looked towards Zhang Fan. Tang Xiong said, “Brother Zhang, you’re not destined for our cardiothoracic department. How about you give this opportunity to me? I’ll treat you to a great meal tomorrow!”

Director Liu immediately left after announcing that the position of secondary surgical assistant would be Zhang Fan’s. This was Director Liu’s way of tossing the trouble over to Zhang Fan. But, Zhang Fan would never let go of the opportunity to perform surgery together with such a renowned expert doctor!

Actually, lung cancer tumor removal surgery wasn’t that difficult. The difficult parts would be removing the lesion and dealing with the lymph glands around the mediastinum. Then, the tissue would need to swiftly be brought over to the pathology department for a pathological examination to see if it was a malignant or benign lesion.

For such a renowned expert doctor to come to a local hospital for a surgery, the laboratory departments in the hospital would need to keep extra staff on duty for overtime. Any checkups or tests that the expert doctor required would need to swiftly be completed. There was no logic or reason to this. This was the rule of how things were!

The surgery to remove the tumor from Liu Wenli’s body began. Zhang Fan washed his hands, disinfected, and did the medical draping, all parts of the pre-surgery procedures. The expert doctor was quite friendly. Despite his status, he was quite polite to both Director Liu and Zhang Fan. He truly seemed like a gentlemanly scholar.

The expert doctor was extremely careful and detailed during the surgery. He was being paid a great deal of money and felt that his work needed to deserve the money. He personally acted as the primary surgeon for the entire duration of the surgery. He slowly separated the tissue, slowly stopped the bleeding, and remained unhurried throughout the entire surgery. “Slow is quick!” Zhang Fan finally understood why the director of general surgery at Bluebird City Hospital always said this phrase back when he was studying there!

“Take this and swiftly perform a pathological test on it.” The expert doctor removed the lesion!

“Teacher, what do you think it is? Is it a malignant lesion?” Director Liu asked the expert doctor as they waited for the results of the pathological tests. For this type of test, the surgical assistants only needed to hold the laparoscopic mirrors. It wouldn’t be possible for the assistants to show off any skills. All that was needed from the surgical assistants was that they had steady hands and could follow the primary surgeon’s steps with the mirrors.

“It’s difficult to say. It’s not a classical example. Even if it’s not malignant, it still won’t be that good, because the lesion has already become leaflet-shaped.

“Teacher, what would you like to eat? It’s so rare for you to come to Chasu City, so how about eating some of the local specialties?” After talking serious business, it was now time for small talk. Since Director Liu was the one who had invited the expert doctor here, he had to properly play the part of good host.

“Sure, the guest does as the host says. I can eat whatever you guys eat. After this surgery is finished, I still need to rush over to the nearby Raptor City. I also have a patient there that I’m scheduled to see.”