Chapter 151: Meal
Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu

The result of the pathological examination arrived! The result was fortune among misfortune. The lesion was between benign and malignant, and had high tumor differentiation. The expert doctor that Director Liu invited was the type who favored conservative treatment. The moment that the pathological test reported the lesion as cancerous, no matter what the tumor differentiation degree was, the expert doctor cleared out all of the lymph glands in the nearby area.

Although this would cause quite a lot of damage to the body, this was the safe path! There was a more aggressive school of thought that the cancerous site didn’t need to be cleaned out, instead waiting to observe the situation, or use radiotherapy and chemotherapy instead. The benefit of this was that there would be less damage to the body, but the downside was that it would be easier for the cancer to relapse!

If you were the type who favored conservative treatment, but your department director was the type who favored aggressive treatment, then you would feel great pain from being in such a department. This was why so many doctors would compete over the position of department director. The fight between different medical treatment styles was just like how Confucius murdered his rival Shao Zhengmao. The fight between different medical schools of thought would be quite cruel, often only having bitter resolutions. It was common for a department to end up with only doctors of the same medical school of thought in the end, as doctors with other beliefs would end up leaving. That would then make everyone in the department much happier!

The expert doctor began to clean out the lymph glands. He was very careful and detailed, going from down to up, then from up to down. He cleared out every single one that he possibly could. Typically, he would only start performing surgery at this stage of the surgery back at Zhongyong Hospital in Beijing. His disciples would do the earlier work for him. But here, since he was being paid a handsome amount of money, he personally performed all this work out of professional pride.

The surgery finished. The anesthesiologist and operating room nurse took the patient Liu Wenli to the ICU. Director Liu took Zhang Fan and all the other doctors in the department to a meal treating the expert doctor. Of course, the patient’s family was responsible for paying for this meal, but they wouldn’t be joining this meal!

The expert doctor abstained from drinking alcohol. He simply ate some of the border province’s special mutton, beef, and horsemeat dishes along with some vegetables. Not long after, Director Liu hurriedly drove the expert doctor to the airport as the latter needed to rush to Raptor City. The car was yet another Mercedes Benz that the patient’s family had borrowed.

The expert doctor had now left. The surgery was over, but the patient’s family didn’t even get a chance to thank the expert doctor. He hadn’t even met any of the patient’s family. He had performed far too many surgeries in his life, so dealing with the patients was already his daily routine. He didn’t need to think about dealing with the patient’s family members!

As the expert doctor was leaving, Zhang Fan took the opportunity to ask a single question. “Teacher, what should we do for this patient’s postoperative care?”

“He can be discharged from the hospital soon! Just wait and observe. No special treatment is necessary.” This was the benefit of conservative treatment. Although there was a large amount of damage to the body, the cancer had been cleanly removed. There was no fear of relapsing! There was no need for chemotherapy! This was also the expert doctor’s self-confidence in his own handiwork.

Zhang Fan had already seen during the surgery how skilled the expert was, along with the expert’s mentality. The expert’s mentality was still beyond Zhang Fan’s skill level. The expert doctor had been far too steady! He took everything step by step, completely unhurried. It would be impossible to accomplish this without an experienced mentality! This was what Zhang Fan lacked. There were always those out there who one could learn from.

Liu Wenli’s wife was truly a strong woman. When the nurse came out to tell her as quickly as possible that her husband had carcinoma in situ, meaning that the cancer hadn’t spread, all the other family members besides her started crying! They were crying tears of joy! Liu Wenli’s wife wiped away her own tears and hurriedly thanked the nurse and started preparing red packets!

The expert doctor had now left. The postoperative care would need to be done by the local doctors. Although the expert doctor had been invited here by Director Liu, overall speaking, the patient’s family’s actions meant that they looked down on the local doctors here. Liu Wenli’s wife had plenty of preparations ready in order to ease such awkwardness! She truly was emotionally intelligent! Maybe this was because she was an elementary school teacher!

Liu Wenli was quite lucky and survived! After three days of observation in ICU, he was then moved to a regular patient room in the cardiothoracic department. His son and wife constantly stayed by his side. They didn’t dare to allow Liu Wenli’s parents to come over, because he looked too pitiful with so many tubes stuck in him. They were worried that his parents would become anxious at the sight.

Liu Wenli still couldn’t speak because he had a breathing tube! He caressed his son’s face and held onto his wife’s hand. He felt that being alive was so wonderful! He would be able to see the rising sun again. He would be able to continue accompanying his wife and son. He would be able to take care of his parents in their old age! This all seemed truly wonderful!

Since Zhang Fan was assigned to be Liu Wenli’s primary doctor, he paid special attention to him as this surgery counted as a major surgery. Zhang Fan checked up on Liu Wenli three times per day, not missing a single time. Liu Wenli gradually recovered to the point where he could talk again, walk again, and then be discharged.

Liu Wenli had truly been lucky! The cancer had been discovered quite early, so the treatment was effective. If just six more months had passed without the cancer being discovered, the end result wouldn’t have been anywhere nearly so wonderful. When Liu Wenli was discharged, Zhang Fan grabbed his hand and asked, “You’ve had a life-and-death experience. Did the god of death say anything to you?”

“The god of death told me to stop smoking!”

“Haha! It’s good that you understand!” Zhang Fan watched the balding Liu Wenli leave the hospital. Liu Wenli was a middle-aged man with lots of responsibilities. Did he dare to die? Of course not! In that case, he would protect himself! He would only do as he pleased once he was done with his responsibilities! Men would forever be children at heart!

Ma Wentao’s hospital’s business slowly became better and better. The doctors he hired had good attitudes. There were also short lines at his hospital. Ma Wentao was really ambitious and started placing even more importance on how he managed his hospital. His small hospital was quite orderly under his management, which was a combination of western and Chinese management styles. He had his own personal management style which seemed to work pretty good so far.

Li Liang became dejected! He truly felt like there was no future for him! In just one short year, Chasu City Hospital no longer hired medical students who only had undergraduate degrees. Only those with master’s degrees and above would be accepted! Undergraduate students were no longer wanted! Li Liang’s father was a minor government official who only had connections in Kuake City, so there would be no way that his father could help him get into Chasu City Hospital or become a graduate student.

“What’s up? What’s wrong?” Chen Qifa greeted Li Liang who had called him out for a meeting.

“Director Chen, I came here to Chasu City today to look at Chasu City Hospital’s recruitment exam requirements. But, they’re not even recruiting undergraduate students anymore!” Li Liang was about to cry. The fatty had worked hard for the past year, but the end result was that he wouldn’t even be given a chance.

“Sigh! Take things slow, take things slow.” Chen Qifa patted Li Liang on the shoulder. He didn’t know how he should console Li Liang. Kuake City Hospital’s current state was that there were absolutely zero surgery patients to treat. Maybe that would make it a good hospital for doctors who wanted to have an easy time in old age, but it would waste the abilities of anyone young! Three years would be more than enough to make someone as young as Li Liang completely waste away!

“You should go and rest for now, because your spirit and energy are so lacking. I’ll call for Teacher Zhang to come over later tonight. The three of us can have a good conversation and see if there are any ideas.”

Li Liang was now dealing with the consequences of the exact same situation that had helped Zhang Fan back then. The colleges had really expanded admission during Zhang Fan’s time, so now the hospitals were only recruiting graduate students.

As a certain joke went, a certain workplace needed to hire someone to tend to a furnace. This workplace was only willing to recruit a graduate student who had majored in thermodynamics, because the workplace said that a thermodynamics graduate student would know how to save on using coal in the furnace!

Later that afternoon, Zhang Fan came over. Li Liang explained the situation. There was nothing that Zhang Fan could do about helping him get a job at Chasu City Hospital, because those were the hospital’s rules. He was still just a low-ranking doctor and didn’t have the power to change the rules. Meanwhile, Superintendent Zou had truly made a big mess of Kuake City Hospital. Even if a new superintendent was appointed, it would take at least several years for Kuake City Hospital to recover.

How many “several years” would a person have to wait around? It would be unrealistic to expect Li Liang to stay at Kuake City Hospital and continue working hard! Adults who had graduated and joined the work force already couldn’t joke like that! Everyone would understand that you could only succeed by following the crowd.

Currently, China was spending a great deal of effort on developing important hospitals. A resident doctor who stayed behind in the orthopedic department of a tiny city hospital wouldn’t even be able to begin developing the hospital’s department!

“What do you intend to do? You should decide while you’re still young,” Zhang Fan asked as he talked with Li Liang and Chen Qifa.

“No matter what, I don’t want to stay at Kuake City Hospital! Brother Zhang, help me out here. What should I do?” Li Liang knew that he lacked knowledge. But, there were plenty of people with more knowledge than him! He wasn’t embarrassed one bit!

“You’re still young. It would be such a pity for you to join a private hospital. How about you go study and become a graduate student? This is how the medical field is becoming. Maybe I’ll go get a master’s degree as well!”

“Oh! Forget about studying. It was so hard for me to graduate and get my medical license. I’d rather die than go back to school. I truly hate the idea. I just want to properly work in orthopedic surgery!” Li Liang hurriedly shook his hand. He knew that he wasn’t the type who could be a good student. Rather than wasting time, he preferred to make more money by working at what he already knew!

“Then how about you work under Old Chen at the private hospital?”

“Yeah! I just don’t know how his new boss is?”

“Old Chen, you know more than I do about him. What do you think?” Zhang Fan asked Chen Qifa.

“Hmm. How should I say it? President Ma is someone with ambitions. I think that he has a really huge goal. For now, things seem to be alright at his hospital.”

“Okay. You should first talk things out with your family. If your family agrees, I’ll come have a discussion with President Ma! You’re a doctor with a medical license. You can also independently perform the basic orthopedic surgeries. Your income shouldn’t be too low,” Zhang Fan told Li Liang.

“Thank you, Brother Zhang.”

“Why be so polite with me? Perfect, since you’re here, Shao Hua is going to treat you guys to a meal tonight. How about hot pot? We can have a lively meal. What restaurant do you want to go to? I’ll go make a reservation right now.”

“Forget about me. I haven’t been in good condition recently. I don’t want to negatively affect everyone’s mood.”

“Stop spouting rubbish! Wang Yanan is also going! So are you going or not?”

“Oh! I’ll go! Director Chen, let’s hurry, I’ll go wash my face!”

“Haha!” Li Liang was still young! There was still something more important than work to him! That would be women!

This was the first time that Shao Hua was formally treating Zhang Fan’s friends to a meal with the status of being his girlfriend. Originally, she had wanted to only invite Chen Qifa and his wife, but then she thought about it some more and decided to invite all of his friends instead as a way to formally introduce herself to all of Zhang Fan’s friends. This meant that there would be a significant number of people at this meal.

Attending physicians Xue Fei and Zhou Chengfu from orthopedic department #1, Su Jing from the thyroid and mammary gland department, rotation doctor Wang Zipeng, Hu Zengyang from the gastrointestinal department, Tang Xiong from the cardiothoracic surgery department, Wang Yanan, Li Hui and his girlfriend, and Shao Hua’s best friend Jia Suyue were all coming to this meal. Zhang Fan hesitated for quite a while before also inviting Tang Jingjing as well. He had moved to Chasu City almost one year ago. Although he rarely saw Tang Jingjing, he would still occasionally keep in touch via text message. Tang Jingjing just coincidentally happened to be studying in Chasu City now, as she had been promoted!

These were all the younger coworkers and friends that Zhang Fan was closer to. He chose a chain hot pot restaurant focused on mutton, and reserved a large private room. Apart from Chen Qifa and his wife, everyone else was on the younger side. They soon all became familiar with each other.

Zhang Fan and Shao Hua were now in a steady relationship after more than half a year. Jia Suyue was really astonished by this result. She kept feeling like Zhang Fan was too rustic and uncouth for her best friend Shao Hua. However, since Shao Hua was willing, Jia Suyue didn’t say anything about it.

Tang Jingjing had been promoted due to several years of working hard as Kang Hua’s secretary. She was now the vice director of the Economic and Trade Bureau, which was an excellent job that also suited her major. Tang Jingjing now had a bright future ahead of her. She knew about Zhang Fan’s abilities and also wanted to intentionally cultivate a good relationship with him. Originally, she had an invitation to another meal at the same time, but she immediately canceled going to that meal the moment that she received a call from Zhang Fan.

As the female host, Shao Hua toasted everyone. She acted naturally and gracefully, and was far more skilled at social communication than Zhang Fan. Although Zhang Fan was alright at social communication in private scenarios, it would be quite difficult and awkward for him to do something like give a speech to everyone.

The meal was quite lively and had an excellent atmosphere. Wang Yanan was now severely bullying Xue Fei and Zhou Chengfu in orthopedic department #1! Wang Yanan was a pretty woman. She also had an uncle who was the director of the Bureau of Health in Chasu City. She took full advantage of these and often stole patients from the two attending physicians. She didn’t do this for the sake of money, but rather in order to improve her surgical techniques. Her techniques were still somewhat rough. She couldn’t perform surgeries as smoothly as Zhang Fan could.

Xue Fei and Zhou Chengfu took advantage of this meal to try and make Wang Yanan drink lots and lots of alcohol. Li Liang no longer had any chance of joining Chasu City Hospital, so now he became far more courageous and drank a lot of alcohol on behalf of Wang Yanan. However, it was unknown if there would be any result between the two of them.

Li Hui was now far steadier of a person. He seemed to suddenly mature now that he would soon be a father. From start to finish, he took good care of his girlfriend and didn’t drink a single drop of alcohol.

Zhang Fan’s alumni Su Jing kept holding onto Shao Hua’s hand. Su Jing really liked her junior, and this like extended to Shao Hua. Su Jing treated Shao Hua really well.

Although Chen Qifa was the oldest person in the room, he forever acted as Zhang Fan’s shadow. He would always drink alcohol on behalf of anyone who wanted to toast Zhang Fan! If Zhang Fan toasted someone else, Chen Qifa would drink on behalf of Zhang Fan! Chen Qifa was truly paying back Zhang Fan as much as possible even though Zhang Fan had only helped him on the side. Chen Qifa didn’t care about his age and took excellent care of Zhang Fan!

At the end of the meal, Zhang Fan toasted Chen Qifa and had his only glass of wine today! Zhang Fan was truly moved by how his first disciple was! This was the perseverance of a man! Zhang Fan felt that this deserved a toast!