Chapter 15: A Good Surgeon Must Be a Good Internal Medicine Doctor

"Mo, it's not that I don't trust you, but I just feel that for a case analysis of this difficulty, it's impossible for a student to have answered it," Sun said bluntly.

Never mind a student, what about those experts and professors back then? Didn't they all end up looking as miserable as stray dogs?

He looked at the standard answer on the test paper, thought of that tall figure who seemed to be glowing, and his mind felt a bit dazed.

"Call Student Ji over and ask him about his problem-solving process in person," Zhao Yuanzhang said.

A junior clerk beside Sun immediately searched for Ji Xiang's phone number and dialed it.

Mo Jiaoshou was somewhat excited—not just ordinarily excited; he vaguely felt he had found a treasure.

In Mo Jiaoshou's heart, this Pre-service Trainee had already been upgraded from a student to a treasure, and even to a precious gem.

A good Surgeon must be a good Internal Medicine Doctor; this was what his own teacher had said. Mo Jiaoshou admitted he couldn't achieve this, yet Ji Xiang had!

Thinking of his late teacher, Mo Jiaoshou's heart wavered, and he felt a slight sorrow.

"Director Sun, why do you always feel it's impossible?" Mo Jiaoshou retorted.

"Never mind a Standardized Training Student, you guys in Surgery have rough diagnoses; don't you have any idea about that?" Sun no longer held back and said it very straightforwardly.

"A good Surgeon must be a good Internal Medicine Doctor," Mo Jiaoshou argued. "This is what my teacher said. Although he passed away unexpectedly more than twenty years ago, I still remember it."

Hearing Mo Jiaoshou mention his teacher, even Zhao Yuanzhang did not refute him.

That big shot in the Urology Department originally had a limitless future and was at his peak, but he passed away due to a robbery, which truly made people sigh with regret.

Usually, Mo Jiaoshou was cunning and didn't like to argue with others, but he became a different person when mentioning his late teacher.

He was incomparably tough, as if every word of his teacher was treated as a golden rule, not to be profaned.

……

After handing in his paper, Ji Xiang found a quiet, shady spot, sat cross-legged on the ground very casually, closed his eyes to focus, and entered the System Space.

The exam questions were indeed very difficult, but he had the System NPC to rely on.

The System NPC was very strong; when Ji Xiang saw the case analysis at the end, he knew the teacher who set the questions was deliberately making things difficult.

He also wanted to make things difficult for the System NPC to see how good the system really was.

He never expected that after Ji Xiang finished speaking, the System NPC gave the answer, and even provided potential values for examination data that didn't appear in the prompt.

Ji Xiang knew this wasn't foresight, but extremely profound Clinical experience.

At this point, his admiration for the System NPC rose another level.

Performing surgery well was the duty of a Surgeon, and Ji Xiang had psychological expectations for that.

However, the one before him could also analyze Clinical cases; the system was indeed very good and advanced.

Woken up by his phone, Ji Xiang came out of the System Space and answered the call.

Learning that the Department of Science and Education was looking for him to return, Ji Xiang roughly knew why. He stood up, patted his pants, and walked back to Jiguan Lou with long strides.

"Student Ji, over here." Sun from the Department of Science and Education was standing at the elevator door waiting for Ji Xiang.

The elevator door opened slowly, and he once again saw Ji Xiang's tall figure, which seemed like a luminous body.

Sun's pupils constricted, sensitive to the light, as if looking directly at the sun.

Mo Jiaoshou also followed him out. He familiarly pulled Ji Xiang and chided, "How could you hand in your paper so early during the exam? It would have been good to check it one more time."

"Mo Laoshi, why are you here?" Ji Xiang asked Mo Jiaoshou after greeting Sun.

"To see you take the exam. When you have time, come to the Outpatient Department to see me."

At the same time, a crisp "ding-dong" sound reached Ji Xiang's ears, and the system issued a new task.

【General Task: Assembly Line.

Task Content: Complete at least 20 Circumcisions using a Stapler.

Task Time: 24 hours.

Task Reward: Basic Reward 1: 2 Surgical Points; after completing 20 surgeries, each additional surgery will reward 0.3 Surgical Points. Basic Reward 2: Experience Points +3000.】

Huh? Not bad.

Ji Xiang looked at the task issued by the System Panel in the upper right corner of his field of vision with a smile, his hands already starting to itch.

"Still smiling." Mo Jiaoshou patted Ji Xiang's shoulder and advised, "The nail that sticks out gets hammered down. Even if you answer quickly, you should wait for other students to hand in their papers before you do. Did you remember that?"

"Thank you, Mo Jiaoshou." Ji Xiang knew Mo Jiaoshou was speaking from the heart, so he said thank you very sincerely.

"Student Ji, did you write the final case analysis randomly?" Sun asked while leading Ji Xiang to the conference room.

"No," Ji Xiang replied.

"You wrote it so simply, and you didn't even write the problem-solving process."

"The final question of the case analysis was how to handle it, and I wrote that out. The prompt didn't ask for the problem-solving process, so I didn't write it."

Sun was choked by Ji Xiang's words.

Mo Jiaoshou sighed inwardly; young and impetuous was exactly what described Ji Xiang.

However, he didn't say much more. Mo Jiaoshou was also curious about Ji Xiang—what kind of thought process did Ji Xiang use to arrive at the correct answer for such a complex case?

Arriving at the conference room, Zhao Yuanzhang sat upright, scrutinized Ji Xiang from head to toe, and asked with a smile, "Student Ji, tell us about your problem-solving process for the case analysis question."

Regarding the solution, Ji Xiang had already heard it from the System NPC. At the time, the System NPC had even cited many relevant cases and some laboratory tests that the question setter had intentionally or unintentionally omitted.

Ji Xiang was naturally intelligent and had a near-photographic memory; he remembered what the System NPC said very clearly.

"It's like this." Ji Xiang stood casually in front of the many teachers and the Dean, as if he were defending his graduation thesis.

"Regarding the final case analysis, I think some Clinical data was missing, which I assume has to do with the prompt not being allowed to be too long."

"Hmm?" Sun frowned and let out a hum.

He had set the questions, and Sun had indeed considered this point at the time. With one sentence, Ji Xiang had articulated Sun's state of mind at that moment.

"At the very least, the consultation data from the Department of Nephrology was missing."

"……"

Sun was stunned for a moment; he began to suspect that the Student Ji before him had the ability to see through his heart.

"Let's set that aside for now; I will explain my diagnostic reasoning for this Patient, and I welcome feedback from all the teachers here."

Ji Xiang smiled, scanned the people present, and began to explain.

"Low blood sodium has only two major causes: either not enough is going in, or too much is coming out."

"I suspect the reason the Endocrinology Department consultation recommended continuing sodium supplementation while being cautious with diuretics is precisely this—to let more sodium in and reduce sodium excretion."

"However, looking at the prompt in the Medical Record, I found that although the Patient's appetite wasn't great, it shouldn't have caused blood sodium to drop so rapidly."

"In the few days before the critical value appeared, when the blood sodium was slightly low, I assume the attending Doctor would have told them to eat saltier food or instructed the Patient to take oral salt capsules."

"Even if they couldn't eat that much salty food or salt capsules, the sodium the Doctor provided to the Patient at the time should have been sufficient."

"Therefore, the 'not enough going in' cause does not hold up."

"As for whether too much is coming out, the 24-hour urine electrolyte..."

As Ji Xiang spoke, he raised his hand and scratched his head.

"I am very puzzled that there is no 24-hour urine electrolyte lab report here."

Sun followed Ji Xiang's line of reasoning, and when he heard this, it felt as if he had been slapped hard across the face.

At the time, it was indeed because the prompt was too long, and Sun didn't believe a Pre-service Trainee had the ability to solve this problem, so he had deleted one report.

He felt this report wasn't very important, but with Ji Xiang pointing it out to his face, Sun knew he had left out a key reference document.

This was damn awkward.

"Since there is no report, how did you solve the problem?" Zhao Yuanzhang asked with a kind expression.

"I guessed it based on the Patient's state before and after," Ji Xiang said, stating what the System NPC had said at the time.

"..."

"..."

"What were the lab values you guessed?" Zhao Yuanzhang pressed.

The Ji Xiang before him was full of vigor, making Zhao Yuanzhang feel a bit envious; how good it would be if this were his own son.

No, that's not right—if his own son could talk so eloquently and fearlessly in front of the Experts from the Second Affiliated Hospital, as if he were the Expert teaching a group of students.

If that were the case, how wonderful it would be!

Hearing Zhao Yuanzhang say this, Ji Xiang picked up a pen and paper to write down the values provided by the System NPC.

Two years had passed, and there were no Experts from Orthopedics, Nephrology, or Endocrinology present; no one remembered what the results of that 24-hour urine electrolyte test were.

Even if the Experts from that time were here, they wouldn't remember.

Mo Jiaoshou took a few looks and felt that what Ji Xiang wrote made some sense, but Clinical test results are ever-changing, and Ji Xiang was still being a bit too subjective.

"Go to the Medical Records Room and get the Medical Record," Sun told his subordinate.

This was a bit petty; Mo Jiaoshou shook his head helplessly.

He observed Ji Xiang's expression and, seeing that Ji Xiang remained relaxed and unbothered, realized it was because this young man hadn't yet been tempered in Clinical practice.

Soon, the Medical Record was brought over, and Sun flipped through the aged pages with a rustling sound.

Although the Medical Record was well-preserved, it still had a bit of a musty smell.

"There is definitely a margin of error, but Student Ji has provided a line of reasoning," Mo Jiaoshou said, preparing a way out for Ji Xiang in advance.

Zhao Yuanzhang smiled lightly, glanced at Ji Xiang, and shook his head inwardly.

Can missing Clinical data be filled in just by using one's brain?

Isn't that a joke?

Even ordinary lab data couldn't be imagined just by thinking about it, let alone this Patient, who had undergone so many hospital-wide consultations back then and was considered a difficult case.

The final solution had come from a Deputy Director in Orthopedics who called to consult his own teacher, and that was the advice his teacher had given.

But there was no need to tell this young man about those things.

This young man was indeed good, just a bit too sharp and overly confident.

Truly inexplicable confidence.

Zhao Yuanzhang thought, a trace of mockery appearing at the corner of his mouth, his gaze falling from Ji Xiang to Sun...

Sun stood frozen in place like a fairy struck by Shizi's immobilization spell.

Uh, no wonder Shizi was only interested in flat peaches; even if it were him, he couldn't possibly be interested in Sun.

Watching Sun's mouth widen and the drool about to spill from the corner of his lips, Zhao Yuanzhang vaguely guessed what had happened.

"Director Sun?" Mo Jiaoshou pushed Sun, but didn't expect to nearly push him into a stagger.

"Be careful," Mo Jiaoshou said, steadying Sun.

He was very surprised; was Sun having a sudden cerebral infarction?

The moment Mo Jiaoshou's gaze landed on the lab report printed in the Medical Record, he too was frozen.

The values on the 24-hour urine electrolyte report had some discrepancies with what Ji Xiang had written, but they were minor. While not exactly identical, the facts proved that Ji Xiang had definitely deduced them based on an incredibly profound Clinical foundation.

Deduction...

Medicine is not mathematics; how can one deduce it?

In an instant, Mo Jiaoshou's mind went blank.

Note: This title is in memory of the teacher who regretfully passed away.

(End of chapter)