Li Liang’s father personally brought his son over to Chasu City. He was extremely proud of his son for successfully obtaining a job at a hospital where the current department director valued Li Liang to the point of sending him on a study program to the larger Chasu City Hospital after just one year.

“My dear son, I never thought that you would mature so much in just one year. I was worried that you wouldn’t succeed at the hospital. Hahaha, my son will become Doctor Li in the future! Should I give some wine and smokes to the directors and other higher-ranked doctors at the hospital you’re going to so that they’ll take extra good care of you?”

“No need. My previous coworker helped arrange this study program for me. You won’t need to worry about a thing with him around.”

“That Zhang Fan? The youngster who was previously at Kuake City Hospital? How old is he?”

“He’s the same age as me.”

“He’s that skilled?” Li Liang’s father didn’t really believe it. Even if Zhang Fan was considered skilled in Kuake City Hospital, Li Liang’s father felt that it was only because Kuake City Hospital was a tiny hospital. It would take someone truly incredible to be considered skilled at the much larger Chasu City Hospital. How could someone as young as Zhang Fan be so skilled?

“Yeah, he is. Chasu City Hospital customized the orthopedic surgeon job requirements just to recruit him. Not only that, Zhang Fan isn’t from around here. He came here all by himself, with no connections, yet he obtained the status he has today purely with his skills. Of course he’s amazing.”

“You sure make him sound amazing. Is he reliable?”

“He’s a nice guy who treats me well.”

“Then make sure to keep close to him. Don’t be stingy. Highly skilled people like him are often a bit arrogant. Maybe they look down on you at first, but as long as you work hard at cultivating a good relationship, they’ll become good friends over time. Also, those who are highly skilled typically aren’t schemers, but they’re difficult to interact with at first due to their pride.” Li Liang’s father had been a minor government official for all his life. However, he was highly experienced with Chinese social customs. He tried his very best to teach his son his personal experience gained over the years, which he would never share with an outsider.

“Zhang Fan’s not like that at all. He’s quite easy to talk to. He’s also very friendly and experienced in all areas.” Li Liang knew Zhang Fan’s personality, but didn’t say too much to his father.

Li Liang’s father brought Li Liang all the way to Chasu City Hospital’s entrance in his Jetta car. He owned a house in Chasu City, so Li Liang would have a place to live.

Zhang Fan had been waiting at the hospital entrance for quite a while. Li Liang was slightly introverted, but he had an excellent trait—he was very good at following orders. Previously at Kuake City Hospital, Li Liang would always instantly carry out any command that Zhang Fan gave him to the very best of his abilities. Although Li Liang wasn’t skilled with words, he was hardworking and capable. After Zhang Fan left Kuake City Hospital, Chen Qifa also really liked Li Liang, which was why Director Chen recommended Li Liang for improving his skills through a study program. There was nothing that fellow new doctor Yang Chengming could do but watch in jealousy.

“Brother Zhang, I’m here. This is my father.”

“Oh, hello, sir.”

“Doctor Zhang, hello, hello! You really are a doctor at a large hospital. Even your aura seems like that of a professional.” Li Liang’s father chuckled.

“Haha, you’re being too polite, sir. Let’s all eat a meal together first. The hospital has already arranged a dormitory for Li Liang. I’ll show you afterwards.”

Zhang Fan had taken care of the study program for Li Liang immediately the day after Chen Qifa phoned him. Zhang Fan went to Gao Shijun’s office and talked it over with him. It was easy for the latter to take care of as he was a department director. Gao Shijun also asked out of curiosity what had happened to Wang Dehua.

Wang Dehua had been the director of orthopedic department #2 for three years now—ever since its establishment. He had never taken a single vacation before, yet he had suddenly taken the maximum amount of vacation time allowed. Since Wang Dehua had competed with Gao Shijun for their entire careers, it was only natural for Gao Shijun to be curious what was going on. But, since Gao Shijun was a director, he felt embarrassed about potentially being seen gossiping about such a topic. However, he didn’t feel as reserved in front of Zhang Fan, because he viewed Zhang Fan to be on the same level.

“I don’t know! Director Wang only said that he was tired after the surgery that day! After that, I heard from Vice Director Chen that Director Wang will be temporarily taking a long vacation.” Zhang Fan was quite mystified about it all.

“Oh, you! It’s nice that you’re so focused on your work. Continue working hard.” Gao Shijun originally wanted to say something to Zhang Fan about paying more attention to things other than work, but then felt that there was nothing wrong with what Zhang Fan was doing. Zhang Fan was highly skilled and talented. That wasn’t his fault! Was he supposed to hide his skills?

Li Hongtu was assigned to be Li Liang’s teaching doctor. After Zhang Fan was rotated out of orthopedic department #1, Li Hongtu received another two attending physicians under him. Li Hongtu was a nice guy, and dared to let his subordinate attending physicians go all out. Zhang Fan felt reassured leaving Li Liang to Li Hongtu. Li Liang’s study program opportunity here would last six months, so he needed to learn actual skills. A teacher who wasn’t daring enough to let a student actually do anything would only assign the student to write medical reports and change patients’ medicine. However, the student would barely learn anything in such a case.

Li Liang’s father had originally wanted his son to live in the family home at Chasu City, but when Li Liang heard that Zhang Fan had a dorm room prepared, he refused to go live in the house. Living at the hospital would be more convenient, and as Zhang Fan put it, if he wanted to learn something here, then he would need to work his hardest for the next six months, so he might as well live, eat, and sleep at the hospital, without leaving at all.

Li Liang’s father opened his mouth and wanted to say something when he heard what Zhang Fan said about not even leaving the hospital for six months consecutively. Wouldn’t that make his precious son fatigued to death? If only he had known that being a doctor was so tiring, he wouldn’t have forced his son to study medicine.

Li Liang’s father had arrived with great excitement, but left depressed. He could only endure the sourness in his heart as he ate a meal with Li Liang and Zhang Fan before returning home. As he drove back home, he even muttered to himself, “Is my son here on a study program or to be imprisoned? He can’t even return home or live at the family house? Just what is all this?”

Li Liang’s father was truly someone who only saw the wondrous reputation of the doctor profession without seeing how hard doctors worked.

After Li Liang and Zhang Fan saw off Li Liang’s father, they chatted while walking on the street after their meal.

“Are you intending on becoming an orthopedic surgeon in the future? Or will you be choosing a different medical field? Kuake City Hospital was too small and lacked many departments, so you couldn’t experience everything. You should first work in orthopedic department #1 for a while and then think about your options,” Zhang Fan recommended.

“Okay, Brother Zhang. Actually, I really do like orthopedic surgery. To be honest, I don’t like general surgery that much. I can’t figure out how to perform ligation deep inside the patient’s body.”

“I suppose so. Having a job you enjoy is more important than the money. The doctors in orthopedic department #1 are all quite nice. You don’t need to worry about anything. Tell me if you have any problems, since I’m more familiar with things here than you are.”

“Alright. Even before I came here, Teacher Chen told me to ask you first if I have any problems whatsoever.”

Zhang Fan showed Li Liang to his dormitory, which was a dormitory for intern doctors behind the internal medicine building. It wasn’t the time of the year for the hospital to be receiving new intern doctors yet, so this dormitory was quite empty right now. Li Liang didn’t even have a roommate at this time.

Zhang Fan had originally wanted to stay in the emergency department whenever he wasn’t on a work shift, like how he’d previously done in orthopedic department #1. However, the doctors in orthopedic department #2 didn’t cooperate. As long as it wasn’t Zhang Fan’s scheduled work shift, the doctors would keep protesting and not allow Zhang Fan to perform any emergency surgeries. Thus, Zhang Fan couldn’t do anything about it. It wasn’t like he could bring the emergency patients to orthopedic department #1.

Wang Yanan got incredibly angry over this for Zhang Fan’s sake, feeling that it was really unfair. Zhang Fan tried to appease her by saying, “It’s nice of them if they let us perform emergency surgeries, but it’s normal for them to take the surgeries they can. There’s no need to get angry. We can take things slowly.” Although Wang Yanan’s way of thinking was rather childish, Zhang Fan felt warm in his heart.

Zhang Fan’s very existence was giving far too much pressure to the doctors in orthopedic department #2. Even the doctors who were previously too lazy to want to work on emergency surgeries were rushing to take as many as they could. They all wanted the extra practice. Zhang Fan was now being held up as a departmental role model for everyone. If the other doctors didn’t show how hard working they could be, they wouldn’t even have a chance at future promotions in this department.

Li Xiao’s assistant had remembered quite well that Li Xiao wanted to legally gift the Jeep Grand Cherokee to Zhang Fan. She arranged a time to go to the Department of Motor Vehicles together with Zhang Fan and dealt with the paperwork to legally gift him the car. Zhang Fan really didn’t want this car, but he was forced to accept it. First, he didn’t want to owe such a big favor, and second, this car was too much of a gas guzzler. Although the first car that he drove was a Toyota Cruiser Prado, which was also an SUV, the Jeep Grand Cherokee had an even worse rate of gas consumption.

Zhang Fan was off from work on this weekend. Since he was unable to obtain more surgeries by hanging out in the emergency department, he figured he might as well invite Li Liang and Wang Yanan and treat them to a meal.

Previously, it was always Chen Qifa or Li Liang who arranged and paid for every meal whenever Zhang Fan visited Kuake City. It would be wrong of him not to treat Li Liang to a meal now that the latter had come to Chasu City. Wang Yanan had also been following Zhang Fan for several months now, and she took care of much of the menial work for him, so it was time to properly thank her.

Before, when Zhang Fan didn’t actually own the Jeep Grand Cherokee, he had been too embarrassed to show it off, but now that it was officially his, he felt like he no longer had to hide its existence. He picked up Li Liang and Wang Yanan in this car, preparing to take them to a hot pot restaurant. Zhang Fan wasn’t actually that fond of beef and mutton, but he felt they were alright in hot pot.

“Hmph! You’re finally willing to treat me to a meal? Such a rare event! I have a driver’s license now as well, so how about letting me drive later?” Wang Yanan greeted Li Liang when she got on the car, and then started showing off her new driver’s license which she’d obtained recently.

Wang Yanan had obtained her license after the previous parasite extermination in rural areas. Although she didn’t have a car of her own, she would often borrow her father’s car for practice.

Fatty Li Liang typically didn’t talk much to begin with, and now spoke even less around Wang Yanan, who was the gallant type. While Wang Yanan kept constantly chattering, Zhang Fan’s cell phone rang. It was a phone call from Shao Hua.

Previously, Zhang Fan’s massage treatment for Shao Hua’s mother had been excellently effective. Shao Hua’s mother tried to give him a treatment fee, but Zhang Fan absolutely refused to take any money. This way, Shao Hua would owe him a favor that she needed to return. Since it was the weekend and Shao Hua was off from work, she brought along Jia Suyue and intended to treat Zhang Fan to a meal.

“Why treat him to a meal? There’s plenty of other men out there who will be happier to see us. There’s no need to treat him!” Jia Suyue wasn’t happy with the idea of seeing Zhang Fan again. To her, he seemed to be quite arrogant despite still only being a low-ranking doctor. The main reason still was of course that Zhang Fan’s attitude was quite cold towards her.

“Let’s just go treat him to a meal. It’s not like you have anything else to do. Just pretend to be mute while you’re there. You don’t have to talk to him.” Shao Hua pulled on Jia Suyue’s hand.

“Could it really be that you’ve fallen in love with someone as dark-skinned as him!?” Jia Suyue stared suspiciously at Shao Hua, and saw that the latter’s expression didn’t change at all. Jia Suyue then said, “Let me tell you, he’s so arrogant. He’s not your type.”

Arrogant people like Jia Suyue hated seeing other people’s arrogance!

“I’m saying it now, I’m going to call him.”

“Fine, I really can’t handle you.”

When Zhang Fan saw on the caller ID that the call was from Shao Hua, he hurriedly stopped his car by the roadside. “Hello! What happened?” Shao Hua hadn’t called Zhang Fan a single time except for the first time when arranging for her mother to meet him. Zhang Fan thus thought that maybe someone in her family was ill again.

“Hello, Doctor Zhang. Nothing much is going on today. Are you free? I’d like to treat you to a meal. I’m really grateful to you for helping ease my mother’s pain. I feel bad about not properly thanking you after so long.”

Zhang Fan was absolutely overjoyed to hear this. He hurriedly answered, “No, you’re really too polite. Where are you right now? I’ll hurry over immediately.” Zhang Fan didn’t even dare to politely refuse as would be the norm in Chinese etiquette ¹ , as he was afraid that Shao Hua would treat his words seriously.

He then looked at the two people still on his car, and whom he now viewed as unnecessary luggage. However, he did feel that getting rid of them right now would be too rude of him. Thus, he gritted his teeth, and said, “Um, I have two friends with me right now. Is it alright with you if they come?”

“Sure. It’s more fun with more people. Jia Suyue is with me as well.”

“Alright.” Jia Suyue! Zhang Fan felt such a headache at hearing she would also be present.

Zhang Fan then hung up and told Wang Yanan and Li Liang, “A friend of mine is treating me to a meal today. How about all of us eat together?”

Li Liang had no objections, but Wang Yanan became slightly unhappy. “What’s with this? You’re just trying to get out of treating me to a meal!”

“Hey, I’ve promised to treat you, so don’t be unhappy. You can pick a place next time and eat all you want, and if we receive any simple surgeries over the next few days, you can be the primary surgeon, and I’ll be your surgical assistant.”

“Okay then, I guess I can force myself to accept that.” Wang Yanan’s smile was so big, yet she was still claiming to force herself.

Li Liang suddenly spoke up at this time. “Brother Zhang, is your friend female?”

“Yeah! She’s a female friend of mine.”

“Your girlfriend?” Wang Yanan instantly became interested in this topic.

“No.”

“It would be strange if you didn’t like her. No wonder you’re being so generous in promising to treat me to anything I want next time. Rest assured, since you’ve promised to be so generous, I’ll definitely praise you to the heavens in front of her. But in exchange, you must let me be the primary surgeon for more surgeries in the future.”

Shao Hua had reserved a private room at a chain hot pot restaurant. The food’s taste here was average, but the service and environment were both considered good. The restaurant wasn’t too far away, and Zhang Fan arrived after only slightly more than 10 minutes.

Shao Hua and Jia Suyue were already waiting at the restaurant. When Zhang Fan’s group entered the private room, Zhang Fan didn’t even get a chance for introductions when Shao Hua, Jia Suyue, and Wang Yanan all hugged each other. “Yanan! I haven’t seen you in so many years! I thought that you went to somewhere in central China.”

“Nah, I came back here right after graduating from medical school. How about the two of you? I missed you two so much! I haven’t seen either of you since high school graduation.”

Zhang Fan and Li Liang watched the old friends catch up. It turned out that Shao Hua, Jia Suyue, and Wang Yanan had all been high school students together. Back then, instant messengers like QQ weren’t widespread yet. Since Wang Yanan went to a college in a different city from the other two, they had gradually lost contact with each other. Although Shao Hua and Jia Suyue only had a normal friend relationship with Wang Yanan in high school, they all now better understood the value of high school friendship now that they had matured into adults. The three were all really excited at this unexpected high school reunion.

Zhang Fan and Li Liang were ignored for quite a while. Only after the three women had finished catching up did Shao Hua awkwardly say, “I’m so sorry, I just didn’t expect to meet an old classmate of mine. I really need to thank you, Zhang Fan. Otherwise, I wouldn’t know when I would meet Yanan again.” Shao Hua then said to Li Liang, “I’m sorry for impolitely ignoring you.”

“Oh, so Zhang Fan was talking about you?” Wang Yanan spoke with surprise before Zhang Fan and Li Liang could respond. She also kept winking to Zhang Fan.

Zhang Fan’s face instantly went deep red rather than bright red as he was relatively dark-skinned for a Chinese person! Jia Suyue didn’t understand what was going on as she asked, “What do you mean? And how come you’re together with him?”

Wang Yanan saw how awkward Zhang Fan was feeling, so she chuckled, but didn’t say anything else to tease Zhang Fan. She told Jia Suyue, “He’s my teaching doctor. After making me do all his work for quite a while, he was going to treat me and Li Liang to a meal today, but Shao Hua just called him, so he immediately rushed over here. This guy here is Li Liang, Doctor Li, a surgeon from Kuake City.”

Wang Yanan was really giving a lot of face to Zhang Fan with her words. Zhang Fan was smiling so much that he felt like even his sweat pores were smiling.

“He?! He’s your teaching doctor!?” Jia Suyue was shocked to hear this. She knew about Zhang Fan’s background since he was her marriage candidate. Thus, she knew that Zhang Fan had graduated in the same year as herself and Shao Hua. Meanwhile, Wang Yanan had graduated one year later. A difference of one year meant that he could be a teaching doctor? That seemed like such a lacking qualification to be a teaching doctor!

“You probably don’t know how amazing Zhang Fan is at the hospital. When we went to assist Kuake City Hospital, the entire hospital staff, even including the hospital superintendent, came out to greet him! Just ask Li Liang if you don’t believe me. They used to work at Kuake City Hospital together. Zhang Fan then took the hospital recruitment exam and got a job at Chasu City Hospital. It’s said that the hospital even customized the job requirements so that only he could receive the job opening.”

Zhang Fan now made up his mind. He would definitely help Wang Yanan to become an independent and skilled doctor in orthopedic department #1! She was helping him out so much here, even more than a brother would!

“Really?” Jia Suyue didn’t really believe this.

Shao Hua was quite surprised. In her eyes, Zhang Fan was extraordinarily reliable, and had good connections. Well, she was mostly surprised because he was still a fairly fresh graduate, so this was really good for a recent graduate.

“Let’s eat as we chat. You must all be hungry. You men can order whatever you like. We can eat anything here. Yanan, can you eat spicy food? I remember that you were especially fond of spicy food back in high school. How about now?” Shao Hua invited the men to start ordering food.

“It’s all okay with me, I can eat anything on the menu here,” Wang Yanan answered.

Zhang Fan tried to refuse, but Shao Hua absolutely insisted on Zhang Fan ordering food. Since it was only a hot pot, constant polite refusals would be too awkward, so Zhang Fan and Li Liang started ordering food.

Meanwhile, the three women started chatting with each other about old times again. Zhang Fan ordered two meat dishes and several vegetable dishes. Li Liang seemed to be completely unfocused as he randomly pointed around on the menu.

Zhang Fan told Shao Hua, “I’ve already ordered these. Do you want to add anything else?”

Shao Hua checked his order list, and said, “Let’s add some meat dishes. There’s five of us, so two meat dishes won’t be enough. Oh, do you guys drink white wine?”

Zhang Fan hurriedly shook his head. At that time, Wang Yanan said, “He still needs to drive us back.”

“Oh, okay then. It would be quite boring for Li Liang to drink white wine by himself. Let’s order four beers, then. Today, I’m thanking Zhang Fan for treating my mother, celebrating meeting a new friend, Li Liang, and also celebrating a reunion with my old classmate. So, let’s drink a little. Will that be alright?” Shao Hua then glanced at Li Liang and the others.

Li Liang was rather awkward. It wasn’t that he was shy, but rather that he had become romantically interested in Wang Yanan. He preferred the gallant type like Wang Yanan. Earlier, he was unsure of the relationship between Zhang Fan and Wang Yanan, so Li Liang had been rather out of it. But when he saw that Zhang Fan was interested in Shao Hua instead, Li Liang finally felt that spring had arrived for himself!