Chapter 166: Benefits
Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu

The weather suddenly got much colder. A storm of rain combined with snow made all the roads in Chasu City become muddy. The tree leaves started turning yellow and falling from the trees. Autumn was now ending.

Previously, Zhang Fan paid very little attention to his clothing. Shao Hua now had one new hobby compared to before she started dating him: dressing up Zhang Fan!

Shao Hua no longer allowed him to wear much of his old clothing. Since Zhang Fan paid very little attention to clothing, very few of his clothing matched each other well. She would take him shopping where he felt like the stores were filled with way too many jackets of different colors. Winters in Chasu City were too cold. Zhang Fan often needed to go out in the middle of the night for emergency surgeries, so down-filled jackets wouldn’t be warm enough. He needed a thick leather jacket.

Zhang Fan looked at himself in the mirror. A brown leather jacket, jeans, and work shoes. This looked good on him. However, he didn’t really want to buy this. It was too expensive! This set of clothing would cost a bit more than 4,000 yuan, which was truly expensive.

Shao Hua was personally unwilling to wear clothes that were too expensive. However, she had much stricter requirements for Zhang Fan. “I’m just an ordinary bank employee. Every day, I have to wear the bank uniform, so it’s fine for me to just wear a jacket on top. Besides, I don’t go out with others that much. However, it’s different for you. It’s really important for men to give off a sharp aura. If you wear just a random assortment of clothes every day, you won’t look sharp at all. Besides, if you wear better clothing, it’ll also give me face.”

“Then you should also buy some clothes for yourself to give me face.” Zhang Fan had said something stupid! Shao Hua immediately responded by trying to bite Zhang Fan. In the end, Zhang Fan felt warm in his heart when he exited the mall. He couldn’t explain it clearly or what bliss or love were supposed to be, but this was how he felt. It was a faint and warm feeling that was like a warm current running through his heart.

Compared to regular surgeons, Zhang Fan’s skills were far too all-encompassing. He was basically a surgeon who was vice director level in every single type of surgery. Zhang Fan now monopolized all the surgeries at smaller city hospitals in the nearby area. He was capable of performing all sorts of general and orthopedic surgeries. Although he had obtained some fame within Chasu City Hospital, he was still young. There were many things in the departments that Zhang Fan couldn’t deal with just yet.

Zhang Fan’s name now appeared on the lists of all the major medical equipment suppliers since he had monopolized all the surgeries in the nearby area. Although the smaller city hospitals couldn’t compare in number of surgeries to Chasu City Hospital, all of them added up together would still amount to a large number of surgeries. This would represent benefits. This was a market. The medical equipment merchants ruled this market.

It would be impossible for a medical equipment merchant to access any city level hospital without a governmental leader of some sort as backup and support. Medical equipment was also categorized between imported and Chinese, and the doctors would have to use the medical equipment after it was brought to the hospital. How were the merchants supposed to convince the doctors to use their equipment?

The boss of the medical equipment supply company would be responsible for securing business with the hospital. The salesmen would be in charge of negotiating with the department directors and doctors. An excellent salesman would be able to make it so that a department director viewed him or her as part of their family.

This type of job would take place over a long period of time. Countless days would have to be spent maintaining a relationship. Once a doctor was promoted to attending physician, as long as the doctor had some skills in their field, medical equipment suppliers’ representatives would try and contact the doctor and negotiate an agreement, gambling on the doctor’s future success.

Medical equipment suppliers would start contacting attending physicians and heavily invest in vice directors. As for department directors, especially when it came to department directors of major departments in larger hospitals, the competition for the director’s business could be quite cruel. Not only were the doctors themselves competing against each other for position of director, there were also many other factors involved here.

First of all, you would need to be one of the best in skill level in the department to be considered for director. Next would be the competition for who had more outside resources and power. Although Zhang Fan was only a resident doctor currently, not even promoted to attending physician yet, he was already showing his skills in the medical field. Li Qiong, who was Gao Shijun’s personal medical equipment supplier, intended on contacting Zhang Fan even though he was only a resident doctor.

Li Qiong had many different brands under her management. She had been in her business for more than ten years already and was now deeply involved with Chasu City Hospital’s internal workings. It would be incredibly simple for her to learn of Zhang Fan’s movements now that she was interested in him.

For instance, Zhang Fan needed to perform a bone fracture internal fixation surgery at Chark City Hospital tomorrow. He would give part of his surgery fee to the doctors there, which was why the local doctors would happily gather patients for him. For smaller city hospitals, they typically wouldn’t have enough medical equipment on hand. Instead, the department director or doctor in charge of the patient would call the medical equipment supplier one day before the scheduled surgery, and the supplier would deliver the medical equipment so that it could be disinfected and used for the surgery on the following day.

Because of this, Li Qiong would learn one day ahead of time where Zhang Fan was going whenever he had an orthopedic surgery. After Zhang Fan finished the surgery at Chark City Hospital, he saw Li Qiong when he walked over to his car.

“Doctor Zhang, are you returning to Chasu City? How about giving me a ride?” Li Qiong smiled like a blooming flower. She was highly skilled at dressing herself up. She appeared mature yet also seductive. Even her body language and words seemed like they could allure someone.

“Oh! President Li! Yeah, are you going back to Chasu City? Feel free to get on my car.” Zhang Fan had previously met Li Qiong through Gao Shijun.

She got on his car and they headed back to Chasu City. “Doctor Zhang, did you come here to perform a surgery?”

“Yeah.”

“You’re truly amazing. I’m really impressed with you, so young and highly skilled. You really are incredible! When I was younger, my dream was to become a doctor, but I was too stupid! I didn’t have the chance.”

“It’s just a job. It’s also not as good as you think it is.”

“You save people from dying. It’s quite divine! Doctor Zhang, surely there must be many girls interested in you with how excellent you are.””

“Haha! I’m almost about to get married.” Zhang Fan felt that something was off. He sensed that Li Qiong’s tone contained something that sounded like she was intentionally trying to get close to him. She reminded him of himself back when he was a food seller, trying to get into all of his classmates’ good graces in order to improve his food sales. Zhang Fan started being on guard against Li Qiong. However, he had still underestimated her. For someone like her who was a highly successful medical equipment supplier, she would have been crushed by her competition long ago if she didn’t have high intelligence as well as high emotional intelligence.

“Really now! It seems that Doctor Zhang must have caused many women’s hearts to suffer. Doctor Zhang, what district did you buy an apartment in then?” Li Qiong asked with an expression of exaggerated surprise.

“Oh, Qinghua District.”

“Really? That’s wonderful. I also have an apartment in Qinghua District. What a coincidence. Doctor Zhang, I think I’m only a few years older than you?”

“I suppose. You look quite young, President Li.”

“Doctor Zhang, you’re quite the flatterer. We’re friends from now on then, how about it?”

“Oh! Haha, sure! We’ll be friends!” Zhang Fan agreed to whatever she said without actually being serious about it.

“It’s settled then. Don’t be reserved with me if you need anything in the future. For instance, if you need to buy something for your home, or heavy work like installing some electronics or assembling furniture, let me know. I’ll definitely have it taken care of excellently for you.”

“Thank you the, President Li.”

“Doctor Zhang, do you have other business in Chasu City today? Since we coincidentally met today, let’s eat dinner together? Could you please give me face?” Li Qiong suddenly changed her tone to sound pitiful rather than generous. She was skilled at instantly changing her tone.

“Oh, I’m truly sorry. I already have plans to eat dinner with my girlfriend tonight. I’m so sorry.” Zhang Fan directly refused. He was quite clear that he was only an ordinary person and that this dinner would probably involve things above his level to handle. Right now, he already had a good income, so he didn’t want to get involved in more things. His greatest goal was only to grind as many surgeries as he possibly could.

“Next time then. It’s such a pity!” Li Qiong wasn’t in any hurry even though Zhang Fan was being difficult to establish a relationship with. She would have been more worried if she had been able to successfully conquer him on the very first time. To her, the more difficult a person was to establish a relationship with, the safer that person would be. People who were able to resist temptation would be able to achieve greater things. This was why she wasn’t impatient!

Zhang Fan arrived in Chasu City. Li Qiong got off his car before he arrived at the hospital, because she knew that with her status, it wouldn’t be good for other doctors to see her together with Zhang Fan. She got off his car immediately upon arriving in Chasu City. She was highly satisfied with Zhang Fan on her first time trying to contact him. He seemed to be the steady and cautious type!