Path of Medicine With a System

Zhang Fan already had a special status in the hepatobiliary department to begin with, and the other attending physicians didn’t dare to order him around, but now that Zhang Fan made gall bladder surgery look easy, nobody dared to look down on him at all. Everyone realized concretely that he had amazing medical skills. “Doctor Zhang, what are you up to? There’s a gall bladder surgery scheduled for this afternoon, could you lead some of the medical specialist doctors in performing this surgery? I have too many surgeries to deal with.” One of the veteran attending physicians had more surgeries than he could handle, so he gave one of his surgeries to Zhang Fan. Zhang Fan led the young doctor who had been kicked out of the surgery the previous day for almost injuring a patient with improper boring of holes.

Being able to remain in any hospital department would require the approval of the director. This young doctor had unluckily suffered due to Zhao Jun’s anger at Zhang Fan, and he didn’t even eat for an entire day afterwards. What was he supposed to do if Director Zhao wrote on his assessment that “his performance was below average” and that “he was unable to complete the tasks assigned to him”? He would obviously be fired from the hospital!

Finally, the young doctor’s teacher was unable to watch anymore, and tried to console the young doctor. “Relax, Director Zhao definitely won’t give you a hard time. It’s perfectly normal for a new doctor not to know how to bore holes yet. Zhang Fan is the one who’s really strange. He knows how to do gall bladder surgeries after slightly less than one month of observing? Why do we even need to study gall bladder surgeries, then? Not only can you not do them, there’s not even many directors of general surgery in city hospitals here that can perform gall bladder surgeries so precisely. Have you heard about how Zhang Fan performed a hip replacement surgery on his first day at work in orthopedic department #1? Do you know that veteran attending physician, Xue Fei? He was so shocked that he almost peed his pants.”

This new doctor was a fresh college graduate whose name was Wang Zipeng. His family had spent a significant amount of money on helping him enter Chasu City Hospital. He had been a nervous wreck when he was told to be the primary surgeon for performing gall bladder surgery yesterday. Zhang Fan was the primary surgeon for today’s gall bladder surgery. Zhao Jun also came over since he had just finished with a surgery of his own. He was still somewhat worried since this surgery would be performed only by newbie doctors. Wang Zipeng was so scared to see the director arrive that his hands started shaking. When Zhang Fan saw that Wang Zipeng couldn’t hold the laparoscope steadily, he secretly whispered to the latter, “It’s alright, just hold the laparoscope steadily and everything else will be fine. No need to be nervous.”

Zhao Jun also saw how nervous Wang Zipeng was, so he said, “Little Wang, you’re doing a good job here. You’re always the earliest one to arrive for work and the last to leave. You even often sleep here overnight. You’re doing a good job, so keep up the good work.”

This caused Wang Zipeng to cry tears of gratitude. In the past month, he basically only ate, slept, and lived in the hepatobiliary department because he really wanted to become a surgeon. However, he had really wanted to die right after being kicked out of the surgery that he was put in charge of for Zhao Jun’s test. But now that Director Zhao was praising him, he felt much better. “Thank you, Director Zhao. I shall continue working hard.” Zhao Jun watched for a while, and saw that Zhang Fan had absolutely no problems with the surgery, so he left.

“Doctor Zhang, I’m so astonished that I’m sweating all over. I’m still not working hard enough. You’ve managed to far surpass all of us after only one month of studying in the hepatobiliary department,” Wang Zipeng remarked after the surgery was over.

Zhang Fan chuckled, and said, “Don’t worry about it, it’s not a big deal. I graduated one year before all of you, and I also studied for half a year at Bluebird City University Hospital. You’re already quite good at what you do. Director Zhao was correct, and he’s noticed your efforts.”

Zhang Fan didn’t have to do anything else after the surgery, since the medical specialist doctors would take care of writing the medical report and giving the patient medical advice for him. Just as Zhang Fan was about to go study with a medical textbook, Zhou Chengfu from orthopedic department #1 came over and waved his hand at Zhang Fan. “Zhang Fan, come with me.”

Zhou Chengfu then pulled Zhang Fan over to an area where nobody else was around. “Zhang Fan, have you been busy recently? I heard from the hepatobiliary department that you finally got to show off your skills yesterday, and that you instantly KO’d the department director!”

“Stop spouting such rubbish, bro. Yesterday’s gall bladder surgery was extremely simple. There wasn’t even any gall bladder adhesion. If Director Zhao hears your words, he’ll probably write a bad assessment of me when my rotation here is done.”

Zhou Chengfu chuckled, and responded, “Anyways, everyone in the hepatobiliary department is really impressed with you.”

“Forget it, bro. What do you need from me today? Just tell me directly. Any more of this and I’m going to get goosebumps.”

“Haha, you’re still so humble. It’s like this. I heard from the hepatobiliary department that you never have to work the night shifts here. I need to go attend a party tonight where I’ll be drinking some alcohol. However, I’m scheduled to work the night shift tonight. That brat Xue Fei doesn’t want to take my shift, so I came here to ask you. You’re a member of our orthopedic department, even though you’ve been temporarily reassigned. You should still support the work in our department.”

“I’m truly impressed with the excuses you can come up with to make me take your shift, but sure, I’ll go cover your shift right after I eat lunch.”

“You’re such a good bro. I’ve already ordered takeout for you, you can go eat it right in our orthopedic department. That brat Xue Fei had better not have any requests of me in the future. I’ll slap him right in the face.” Actually, rather than going to a party, Zhou Chengfu had accepted a small surgery job from a private hospital, which was why he wanted to make Xue Fei cover his shift. Xue Fei had wanted a small share of the money Zhou Chengfu would receive, but Zhou Chengfu was really pained at the thought of sharing any money, which was why he came to ask Zhang Fan.

Zhang Fan thus went to orthopedic department #1 right after he finished his shift at the hepatobiliary department, and met orthopedic department #1’s head nurse Liao Juan in the hallway. She was all smiles as she greeted him. “Hey! Director Zhang, what a rare guest! Are you here to watch us work?” Zhang Fan was well liked in orthopedic department #1. The head nurse also had a good relationship with him, which was why she often joked around with him like this.

“Head Nurse, you’re making fun of me again. I’m only here to take a look around.” Zhang Fan figured that Zhou Chengfu wouldn’t want others to know that Zhang Fan was covering a work shift for him.

“Sure, have a look around, then. I’m getting off work now. There’s something I’d like to ask of you in a few days, so you definitely have to give me face then.”

Zhang Fan was rather perplexed. “What do you have to ask of me?”

“You’ll find out in a few days. I’ll tell you later because I have to go pick up my kid now.”

Xue Fei was writing a medical report when Zhang Fan entered the department. He remarked, “I knew that old Zhou would go to find you. That bastard went out because he secretly took a job at another hospital. He probably didn’t tell you the truth. I asked him for a carton of smokes to cover his shift, but he refused.”

Zhang Fan and Xue Fei chatted for a little while until Xue Fei finished his medical report and went home. Right now, orthopedic department #1 didn’t have any scheduled surgeries. There were only a few patients who recently had surgery that Zhang Fan needed to watch over to make sure they didn’t have any fever or bleeding. There wasn’t anything else for him to do. Later that night, before Zhang Fan went to sleep on his night shift, he gave some of the surgery patients pain medication and chatted a little with the nurse on duty before he headed to sleep.

At 2:00 a.m., Zhang Fan’s cell phone rang. He drowsily checked the caller ID, and saw that it was from Chen Qifa. “Old Chen, what’s the matter?”

Chen Qifa sounded incredibly excited on the other end of the phone. “Teacher Zhang, the medical license exam results are out! I passed! I passed! I got a score of 430! Hahahaha!” Chen Qifa was going crazy. After several decades, he finally passed the medical license exam for the first time! He could finally keep his head raised proudly ¹ !

Zhang Fan congratulated Chen Qifa for a bit before hanging up and going back to sleep. But right after he fell asleep again, his cell phone rang once more. This time, the call was from Li Liang. “Brother Zhang, I passed! My score was 420! I have a medical license now! I’m now an official doctor!” Zhang Fan offered his congratulations again, and then hung up. He didn’t have any internet access right now, so he was unable to check his own exam result. He would have to wait until he got off work after this night shift.

Not long afterward, he received a call from Li Hui. “Your phone was constantly busy, and I couldn’t even get a call through. Were you flirting with a girl?”

Zhang Fan ignored him, and directly asked, “Did you pass your medical license exam?”

“Of course. How could someone like me not pass? How many points did you get? I got a score of 460. I’m amazing, aren’t I? Just tell me I’m amazing!”

“You’re amazing. I haven’t checked my score yet. I won’t find out until the morning.”

“There’s no need. I’m at an internet café right now. I waited here past midnight for the exam results to be posted and updated. Tell me your test ID number, and I’ll help check the results for you.”

Zhang Fan told Li Hui his test number, and waited for quite a long while. However, Li Hui never called him back. Zhang Fan didn’t worry about it, and simply went back to sleep.

Meanwhile, Li Hui was stunned at the internet café. Was Zhang Fan even human? Li Hui had embarrassed himself so much, showing off in front of him! Zhang Fan had received a score of 533—such a high score! Li Hui was so embarrassed that he instantly turned off the computer and never called Zhang Fan back, simply returning to the hospital dormitory to go back to sleep. Li Hui didn’t even feel happy having passed the medical license examination anymore!

When the next day began, Zhang Fan didn’t have anything to do in the hepatobiliary department again, so he went to an internet café. He laughed to see his own score: 533. No wonder Li Hui hadn’t called him back! It seemed likely that Li Hui felt that he had been slapped in the face, so he felt too awkward to call back. A dozen or so people from Chasu City Hospital had taken the medical license exam, and five had failed. Those who’d passed were incredibly happy that they were now official doctors, while those who’d failed were incredibly ashen-white upon finding out the results. Not only that, since Chasu City Hospital now had a new rule under the new superintendent that all doctors who failed to obtain a medical license within two years would be fired, they felt severe pressure. They would only have one more chance as the medical license exam was held only once per year.

“Did you hear? Our hospital has a monster who scored more than 500 points.”

“For real? Well, it’s of no use. It’s just like 360 points—it’s fine as long as you pass. Having all those extra points won’t do anything at all.”

“Are you an idiot? Having a much higher score makes it much easier for that person to choose their own department. All the department directors will be fighting over someone with such a high score. Those with score that is too low will probably be sent to the infectious diseases department.” Two female doctors who just passed the medical license exam were chatting with each other.

The monster they were speaking of just happened to be right behind them without them knowing. Zhang Fan had an ugly expression. Damn it! Having a high score meant that he was a monster? He looked down on them! They were nothing more than garbage students!

1. TL/N: A score of 360 is required to pass China’s medical license examination. The maximum possible score is 600.