13 A demon! Buddha, please take him away! (1/2)
Surgery department #2 instantly became semi-famous through their accomplishments. Not only did the number of patients seeing them for surgery greatly increase, they had also been praised by the local city government. Superintendent Batu felt that he should help to further improve this department after it received praise, so he sent both new male clinical students to surgery department #2.
Both of these fresh college graduates were locals from this border province. One was Li Liang, a fatty who was from the next city over. His father was a low-ranked government official who had used many connections and favors to get someone with terrible grades like Li Liang into Kuake City Hospital.
Li Liang's father had spent most of his life in the military. Although Li Liang's father hadn't been a ranking officer, it could still be said that Li Liang's father was somewhat close to the government.
Before Li Liang left for Kuake City Hospital, he told Li Liang this: ”the fact that you're bad at studying is in the past. Work is extremely different from school, especially at a job like yours where skills are the most important. After you join the hospital, make sure to become friends with the most skilled individuals there. Our family is well-off enough not to lack your salary, so just try your best to cultivate good relationships with the most skilled individuals. Even if other doctors aren't useful in helping you raise your rank or obtain governmental positions, a hospital is a place where lives are at stake. They might be able to save your life in a critical moment.”
The other new male student was named Yang Chengming. He was from a bigger city in the area. Yang Chengming was the type who felt like he was saving the world by becoming a doctor. He would receive a promotion here and go from intern to official doctor, and then wait for a chance to be transferred to a bigger city hospital.
He had already been interning at a hospital for half a year. He only came here to Kuake City Hospital because it would be easier to get promoted here. To be honest, he kind of looked down upon a small hospital like Kuake City Hospital. Both Yang Chengming and Li Liang moved into the hospital dormitory.
The new house that Kuake City Hospital rented had two bedrooms, one large and one small. The small bedroom was given to Zhang Fan as a single room for himself. The large bedroom was given to four women—Wang Sha and the three newcomer female students.
Chen Lulu, the new pharmaceutical student, had an average appearance. However, she was from Kuake City, and one of her relatives was the head of a certain government bureau. She could have stayed at her home in Kuake City, but she felt that her mother was too nagging, which was why she moved into the hospital's rented house for the new graduates.
As a pharmaceutical student, all she knew how to do was fill prescriptions and sell medicine. She knew absolutely nothing about clinical medicine or treatment. She had only gotten into Kuake City Hospital through connections.
”Is Zhang Fan secretly the superintendent's relative? He gets to live by himself in a single bedroom, so he must be really close to the superintendent. Is he the superintendent's nephew?” Chen Lulu felt like she had discovered some secret as she constantly asked Wang Sha about Zhang Fan. The other two women also paid attention to this subject because they would want to cultivate a good relationship with Zhang Fan if he really was the superintendent's nephew.
”Probably not. He came to the hospital from S Province, just like I did. Besides, Zhang Fan is ethnic Han Chinese. Our Superintendent Batu and his wife are both Mongolians.” Wang Sha was unwilling to tell the other women about how amazing Zhang Fan was. 'I won't tell you anything, so just keep guessing!' Wang Sha thought to herself. This wasn't because she disliked the other women. This was only due to her personality—she thought it would be fun to watch their astonishment.
After surgery department #2 finished its morning meeting, Yang Chengming could detect a powerful aura of obsequiousness.
”Doctor Zhang, have you eaten breakfast? I bought some meat buns filled with lots of extra meat on my way to the hospital. They're still hot, have some!” Chen Qifa handed some meat buns to Zhang Fan.
That wasn't the end. ”Last night, Superintendent Batu gave me a few leftover packs of smokes from the welcoming dinner. Let's split them amongst ourselves.” Vice Director Shi Lei handed Zhang Fan and Chen Qifa a pack of smokes each. The two newcomer students, Yang Chengming and Li Liang, were directly ignored.
”Just what is going on with that fellow? He gets to live in a single room, and all the doctors in our department are sucking up to him. Meanwhile, my department director is completely drunk so early in the morning. Sigh! I suppose that a hick town city hospital is only at this level.”
Still, Yang Chengming didn't really mind. 'Regardless, I'll be leaving after I pass the exam to promote to official doctor, so it doesn't matter. At an important moment, I'll show off some skills I learned in the big city to them, which will impress everyone. However, they'd better not make me do all the work around here, because I still need to study for my medical license exam.' Yang Chengming was truly arrogant.
Even a small city hospital like Kuake City Hospital still had more than two hundred employees. Yang Chengming was only a recently graduated undergraduate student. Even the resident doctors here like Chen Qifa would have to respect the official doctors and not act out. Who knew when you might get your face slapped here?
The fatty Li Liang was far more accepting of his position as a newcomer. He did his part and helped to pour cups of water for everyone.
Brain surgeon Tu Xun was currently out, visiting a sick patient at home. The vice director of surgery department #2 was Shi Lei, who was in charge of brain surgery. But, Shi Lei was the type who didn't want to do any unnecessary work. He wouldn't get involved with anything that wasn't directly related to him, and he preferred to visit patients at home rather than stay at the hospital.
This morning, a patient with an upper arm bone fracture arrived for surgery department #2. Shi Lei was lazy, and didn't want to bother with creating a plaster cast for the patient, so he sent the patient over to the orthopedic department.
”It's just a simple matter of making a cast. I can handle it, so feel free to rest for a while and have a smoke.” Chen Qifa didn't have a medical license, so he felt like he shouldn't be ordering around the new fresh graduate that just joined.
”I'll do it. I often created casts for patients at the bigger city hospital. My director praised me for how great they were.” Was this just how Yang Chengming's personality was? Or was he intentionally trying to act pretentious? Everyone looked strangely at him when he said this.
Shi Lei could only chuckle. How strange! Right after someone as demonically talented as Zhang Fan arrived, another genius had joined their department?