It was now Zhang Fan and Wang Yanan’s turn to receive a patient from Vice Director Chen Qi. An old retired government employee was suffering from a deformed right knee joint. Chen Qi had spent much time on finally succeeding in convincing him to get a knee replacement surgery.

At the current time in China, knee replacement surgery was one level higher in difficulty than hip replacement surgery. Although Chen Qi was the vice director of orthopedic department #2, Director Wang Dehua had yet to allow Chen Qi to be the primary surgeon for any knee replacement surgery, hip replacement surgery, or lumbar surgery.

Wang Dehua and Chen Qi had a good relationship with each other. However, it was typical for directors to reserve certain types of difficult and well-paying surgeries for themselves without letting anyone else do them. Chen Qi was about the same age as Wang Dehua, and similarly skilled. He was looking for an opportunity to make a breakthrough. Chen Qi saw such an opportunity in Zhang Fan’s arrival at the department.

According to departmental legends, Zhang Fan had succeeded in being the primary surgeon for a hip replacement surgery in orthopedic department #1, scaring the two attending physicians there so much that they didn’t dare to join the joints team with Zhang Fan. In that case, if Zhang Fan was able to successfully perform a knee replacement surgery, then Wang Dehua would no longer have any excuse to object to Chen Qi’s performing similar surgeries. Chen Qi didn’t want to sour his good relationship with Wang Dehua; however, there was far too much potential money to be made on these major surgeries, which made him really itching to try something.

Gao Shijun had Li Qiong as his personal medical equipment supplier. Wang Dehua’s personal medical equipment supplier was named Niu Hailing. Both these merchants were capable of supplying provincial quality medical equipment. Meanwhile, despite Chen Qi having merely an extra “vice” in his title, the medical equipment suppliers he could access were far lower in level. Previously, when Chen Qi’s son went on a vacation overseas, his medical equipment supplier had been quite unwilling to pay for the plane tickets. This was all because he didn’t bring enough benefits to the merchant.

This patient was an elderly man from before Mao Zedong’s generation. He was already more than 90 years old. Less than 30 people in Chasu City were his age. He was still quite spirited despite his age. However, his knee joints had started deteriorating over the past two years, and he was no longer able to walk. Only then did his physical condition start to gradually worsen. His family ended up agreeing to the knee replacement surgery to help him live a few years longer.

The old patient had three sons and three daughters. His wife had passed away long ago. His three sons-in-law and daughters-in-law all stayed at home full-time to take care of him. Why were they so filial? There was only one reason. The old man’s income was too high.

He received more than 10,000 yuan per month as a pension after retirement. Not only that—as such an old government employee, the government would pay for all of his medical expenses. Not only did his sons-in-laws and daughters-in-laws suck up to him, even his next-door neighbors needed to kiss his ass. It would be no problem for him to write off more than 100,000 yuan in medical expenses each month.

The old man’s son brought his medical information to orthopedic department #2. “May I ask who is Doctor Zhang Fan?”

“Oh, that’s me.” Zhang Fan took the medical information. Whoa! The old man had directly requested a VIP patient room. Zhang Fan would need to go to the VIP section to treat the old man.

“My father’s age is quite advanced. It’s inconvenient for him to stay in the regular patient rooms. We’ll be troubling Dr. Zhang to go over there.” The patient’s son spoke quite politely.

“Okay, I’ll go over right now to give him a checkup and prepare him for the surgery. How about you go to see him first? I’ll be right over.”

“Sure.”

Zhang Fan knew that he had received a knee replacement surgery patient. He was really itching to perform surgery as he hadn’t gotten to properly do so in several months. “Wang Yanan, come with me. We’re going over to the VIP section for our new patient.”

“What patient?”

“A surgery patient.”

“Won’t it be troublesome if the patient is in the VIP section? We’re going to have to go over there every day.”

“Let’s go already. Is there any use in saying such things?” Zhang Fan and Wang Yanan walked over from the surgical department to the VIP patients’ section.

When Zhang Fan arrived, he saw a spirited old man sitting in a wheelchair in the largest room of the VIP section. Several women were cleaning his bed for him. ‘Such an extravagant VIP room still needs cleaning? He really knows how to enjoy his life,’ Zhang Fan thought to himself.

“Oh, the doctor’s here. Please come in. Vice Director Chen hasn’t arrived yet?” one woman asked; she saw that Zhang Fan and Wang Yanan were rather young.

“We—” Wang Yanan was about to say something when Zhang Fan instantly interrupted her. He knew that anyone capable of staying in this best VIP room would be either rich or powerful. He didn’t want to stir up any trouble for himself.

“We’re here for a preliminary checkup. The directors will come to personally check on you afterwards,” Zhang Fan casually stated. He then pulled Wang Yanan into the room while pinching her arm.

Wang Yanan glanced at Zhang Fan, but didn’t say anything. She liked to always say what she thought, but she also knew that she couldn’t afford to truly anger Zhang Fan, as that would mean she wouldn’t get any chances to actually practice surgery.

The old patient had a somewhat poor hearing due to his advanced age. Zhang Fan performed a basic checkup, and found that the patient’s heart, blood pressure, and other measurements were all alright. However, the patient’s right knee joint was severely distorted to the point of almost being turned inside-out. The patient’s male relatives were all quite polite. However, the female relatives all had rather arrogant and unfriendly attitudes upon seeing how young Zhang Fan and Wang Yanan were.

Zhang Fan immediately pulled Wang Yanan out of the room after finishing the checkup.

“Could you have some more guts to stand up for yourself? Just listen to those women chattering about us as if we can’t hear them!” Wang Yanan complained.

“So what? Are we supposed to argue with them? Have some patience, okay? We don’t have to lower ourselves to their level. Woman, sometimes being foolish is better. If you’re combative on a daily basis, you’ll age really quickly.”

“Hmph!”

When Chen Qi saw Zhang Fan and Wang Yanan return to orthopedic department #2, he intentionally spoke up in a loud voice in front of everyone. “Doctor Zhang, how is it, the patient’s in good health for the surgery, right? Since you’re in an independent medical team now, do you think you can guarantee success for this surgery? Pick a doctor you’d like to be your primary surgical assistant. I’ll give you anyone you want. Even if you want Director Wang to be your assistant, I’ll go talk to him about it.” Chen Qi spoke rather vaguely because he wanted to attract the interest of the other doctors in the department.

“Haha, the patient’s overall health is alright. Vice Director Chen, how about you assist me with the surgery? You can also decide the secondary and tertiary surgical assistants.”

“Oh my, newcomers really don’t know fear. Alright, an old guy like me will act as your primary surgical assistant this one time. I’ll also arrange for the other personnel. I’d like to see Doctor Zhang’s skills for myself.” Zhang Fan’s words were exactly what Chen Qi wanted to hear.

Chen Qi really hoped that Zhang Fan could succeed with this surgery. He arranged for himself to be the primary surgical assistant, with Yuan Tao and Luo Jin being the secondary and tertiary surgical assistants, respectively. Chen Qi wasn’t afraid of Wang Dehua’s displeasure, since Director Wang had already told him to test Zhang Fan’s skills. If Zhang Fan truly was able to succeed at performing knee replacement surgery, then all the doctors in the department would start rebelling if Director Wang still didn’t allow other doctors to perform such surgeries.

“Hey, look! A resident doctor from orthopedic department #1 is already capable of performing knee replacement surgery, yet Director Wang is still monopolizing all such surgeries for himself?” Wang Dehua would no longer be able to maintain a stable position as director unless he allowed other doctors to perform these surgeries. However, even if he did allow other doctors to do so, he would start by only allowing the most experienced doctors. This would of course mean Chen Qi, as the vice director was the second most experienced doctor in the department after the director.

It was all a well thought out scheme by Chen Qi.

During the next day’s morning meeting, Wang Dehua didn’t speak for quite a long while as he kept looking at the surgical preparation report for the old patient. Finally, he spoke up in a tone that sounded like he was simply having a normal discussion. “Isn’t this surgery a bit too major for Zhang Fan?”

Chen Qi hid all signs of his scheme quite well as he responded with a friendly chuckle. “There should be no problem. I especially went to ask Li Hongtu from orthopedic department #1. He says that the young brat is especially skilled at joint replacement surgeries. If you don’t feel assured about his skills, you can observe and take over the surgery at any time if he’s incompetent, and I’ll be your primary surgical assistant.” Chen Qi was doing his best to make his involvement in this surgery set in stone. “Besides, if Zhang Fan fails at this surgery, Gao Shijun will no longer be able to strut around so proudly and brag to everyone how amazing Zhang Fan is, as if Old Gao is the best person in the world for spotting talent! If his greatest disciple can’t even succeed at a surgery in orthopedic department #2, Old Gao will become nothing more than a joke!”

“Okay! Let’s do it like that, then. I’ll personally observe tomorrow’s surgery, and if he’s incompetent, I’ll kick him off and take over the surgery.” Wang Dehua did feel slightly pained about using his own monopolized surgery type to test a resident doctor’s skills. However, he was still willing to let Zhang Fan try so that Gao Shijun could potentially lose face as Wang Dehua had competed with Gao Shijun for his entire career. Chen Qi had taken advantage of it as he knew quite well how ultra-competitive Wang Dehua was, thus digging a pitfall for the director.