Chapter 173: Man’s pride
Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu

Wang Yongyong was brought out of the operating room. Wu Yanchao came over to see him together with Wang Yongyong’s wife. She had kept scaring herself as she waited outside the operating room, getting more and more scared due to her imagination. Her eyes were quite swollen from all her crying. She could barely open her eyes anymore. Wang Yongyong was everything to her!

Ma Wentao had already begun preparations for advertisements involving Wang Yongyong. It would be normal for Ma Wentao to succeed due to being so hardworking as well as having a rich and powerful father. Ma Wentao’s strategy was to dominate the market in all the small villages around Chasu City.

Although this strategy seemed quite plain and ordinary, Ma Wentao’s hospital had only been established a few months ago. He had already managed to monopolize all limb replantation surgeries in the cities and villages around Chasu City. Ma Wentao was indeed quite adept at business strategy. There would be very few limb replantation surgery type injuries in the bigger cities. Such injuries would mostly occur in the rural villages or in certain industries.

What were the major industries in Chasu City? Apart from China’s four major industries, there were only the privately owned mines. Although the border province was remote, there were plenty of private hospitals, with advertisements aplenty for andrology, gynecology, and so on.

Those private hospitals actually had their own unique specialties. In private hospitals, andrology was actually a euphemism for treating sexually transmitted diseases, while gynecology was a euphemism for abortion. They would also have rather strange standards for their medical fees, reaching the point where most ordinary people wouldn’t be able to understand them. Some private hospitals were even worse. They would advertise something like “Circumcision is painless!” and that they would use general anesthesia during the entire surgery. While it was true that the patient wouldn’t feel a thing during the circumcision itself, there would still be a tremendous amount of pain after the surgery was over and the anesthesia wore off! This was truly outrageously false advertising!

Currently, Ma Wentao’s excellent management had already led his hospital far ahead of these types of private hospitals. Although they were all private hospitals, their goals were different, so their development was different as well.

Ma Wentao intended on establishing an excellent reputation for his hospital through properly good service so that he would have repeat customers. Meanwhile, those andrology and gynecology private hospitals only cared about getting each customer once only! Luckily for such private hospitals, China’s population was incredibly large, which was how they were able to stay in business. Such private hospitals would have long since gone bankrupt in any normal country with a much smaller population. Who would dare to come to such a hospital again when they added additional fees in the middle of the surgery!?

Zhang Fan gave Wang Yongyong’s wife and Wu Yanchao some basic medical advice about postoperative care and then left. Ma Wentao was becoming more and more familiar with Zhang Fan now. Zhang Fan didn’t ever request anything of him, nor did Zhang Fan care too much about him. Not only that, for Zhang Fan was highly skilled at surgery. That was why Ma Wentao felt that Zhang Fan was the only person in all of Chasu City that he could talk to! Ma Wentao was just too paranoid because he had seen far too many people who only wanted to get close to him because of his rich and powerful father! Basically, something was wrong with his head now due to his upbringing’s circumstances!

“You see, the surgery is finished now. I don’t intend to charge Wang Yongyong any money for the surgery. He can be a living advertisement for me. Although he won’t be as effective as an NBA player, there’s still not that many retired professional basketball players in the border province!” Ma Wentao was quite proud of himself. He was also the type who really loved to show off his accomplishments to others.

“Just pay me already. I still need to go back and eat.” Zhang Fan couldn’t be bothered to care. He and Ma Wentao were interested in totally different things. Ma Wentao’s main goal was to become a leading figure in the business industry, while Zhang Fan’s main goal was to improve his surgical skills. That was why Zhang Fan had no interest in Ma Wentao’s accomplishments.

“Boring! Such a boring person actually has a girlfriend?” Although Ma Wentao was muttering this, slightly unhappy with Zhang Fan’s attitude, he still acted swiftly and tossed an envelope with money over to Zhang Fan.

Zhang Fan instantly felt that the money contained within the envelope was much more than usual.

“What’s this?” Zhang Fan would definitely always ask for what belonged to him, but he would never take anything that he shouldn’t, especially when it came to surgeries. He had already suffered too much due to the lesson from the W Province southerner.

Ma Wentao, who seemed to be quite filled with energy, said, “This is your payment for performing the surgery. As long as Wang Yongyong recovers well after the surgery, in the future, you’ll always be paid 10,000 yuan for this type of surgery, just like today!”

Zhang Fan was really surprised by this! He didn’t understand how surgical fees actually worked. Very few people would require such high-level sports medicine surgeries. Chasu City was just a relatively small city in all of China, after all. Zhang Fan’s horizons were quite limited. Other than how to perform surgeries, he didn’t know about much. He was just the son of an ordinary family. His System greatly improved his surgical skills, but the System didn’t teach him anything else apart from surgery. He would have to learn everything else on his own.

Meanwhile, Ma Wentao was quite different. He had traveled to most of the highly developed countries in the west before already. He was also highly intelligent and had an excellent upbringing thanks to his father. His father was the leader of the entire border province, so of course his son wouldn’t be someone so simple.

Zhang Fan didn’t worry about such things. He didn’t understand Ma Wentao, nor did Ma Wentao understand him. However, this wouldn’t affect the fact that they could cooperate. Ma Wentao was arrogant and spoiled, but he wasn’t a bad person. He was actually quite principled for a rich second-generation individual. He wanted to prove himself to his own father: prove that he could be successful on his own. Ma Wentao was already in his 30s, yet he was still behaving childishly. In this way, he even had a rather innocent heart.

In Ma Wentao’s eyes, Zhang Fan seemed to be really rustic. Ma Wentao felt that Zhang Fan’s clothes were rustic, and that even his very aura seemed rustic. However, Ma Wentao also saw that Zhang Fan was highly principled. Although Zhang Fan would always ask for what belonged to him, he would never take anything more that his own share. Sometimes, Zhang Fan could be really generous with his money, while at other times, Zhang Fan could be ridiculously stingy. In Ma Wentao’s mind, Zhang Fan was someone worthy enough to be his friend. However, this Zhang Fan fellow was just too dense, and always ignored his friendly invitations!

Zhang Fan took the money and was about to leave when Ma Wentao hurriedly stopped him. “Can’t you at least stay and chat a little instead of just taking the payment and leaving? Even if you only spend 5,000 yuan, half of this payment, you’ll be able to find the highest-level girls to accompany you!”

“Haha! Be careful of getting AIDS!” Zhang Fan joked without actually smiling.

“Fine, you’re amazing, you’re my granddaddy. It’s like this. I intend to start doing advertisements with Wang Yongyong after he recovers. Not only will I be doing advertisements in Chasu City, I’ll also be doing advertisements in Raptor City. What advantages do you have? Tell me. You’re the primary surgeon here, after all. This way, I can list your advantages on the advertisement!”

Zhang Fan sat down and thought about this for quite a while, yet he couldn’t think of any advantages that he had at all. ‘My System? Ha, I absolutely can’t tell others about that. My academic qualifications? Right now, Class A Hospitals aren’t even hiring intern doctors who only have undergraduate degrees like mine anymore. My age? My surgical skill level? That’s even more ridiculous. Having good surgical skills sounds so incredibly vague. Besides, whether someone is good at surgery or not isn’t something that should be said by oneself.’ Zhang Fan thought for a long while, but truly couldn’t come up with his own advantages for an advertisement.

“I don’t have any advantages!” Zhang Fan said in a small voice.

“Sigh! I thought about it as well, but you truly don’t have any advantages. Just look at how dark your skin is. If we take a picture only of your face, others will probably think that it’s a black-and-white photograph!” Ma Wentao finally found an opportunity to insult Zhang Fan.

“Damn you!” Zhang Fan left while giving Ma Wentao the middle finger. Ma Wentao laughed uproariously at his own joke as Zhang Fan left. Imperceptibly, the two of them were getting more familiar with each other.

Zhang Fan returned to Chasu City Hospital in the afternoon. He saw that the stand outside the surgical department now looked brand new, with new paint and new glass windows. Right when he entered the hospital, the security guard at the front entrance stopped him.

“Doctor Zhang! This is the key to that stand. My boss told me to give this to you!” The security guard was rather envious as he looked at Zhang Fan.

The doctors hadn’t paid much attention to the unused stand by the surgical department. However, others would definitely realize that the stand by the surgical department was an excellent business opportunity.

“Thank you!”

Zhang Fan had nothing to do in the oncological department still. Well, the oncological department mostly just took care of patients in their final moments. Patients who actually required chemotherapy or radiotherapy and could be treated would all be stolen away by other departments.

Later that night during dinner, Shao Hua’s father was quite eager to hear good news from Zhang Fan regarding Shao Hua’s cousin’s business opportunity. “Sir, Ma’am, I talked to my hospital’s superintendent this morning. She agreed. You can have Cousin go to the hospital to pay the rental fee for the stand any time now.”

“Really? Wonderful, wonderful!” Shao Hua’s father was delighted!

“However, you need to tell Cousin and his wife that they absolutely can’t sell any fake products. They also need to obtain all the necessary and proper licenses. Only a proper store can run for a long time there. They also need to maintain a good relationship with the hospital’s security guards,” Zhang Fan added.

“Was this difficult for you? Thank you so much,” Shao Hua said to Zhang Fan.

“Not at all. It’s just a small matter! It’s what I should do.” Zhang Fan wouldn’t have told Shao Hua even if it had been difficult. This was a man’s pride! Although it might sound laughable, this was something he took pride in as a man!