Chapter 163: Not Knowing How Good One's Own Surgery Is

Ji Xiang kept silent while watching the surgery, which made Zhao Yisheng feel a bit uneasy.

Although Ji Xiang was young, Zhao Zhe did not dare to be the slightest bit negligent.

"Doctor Xiao Ji, Teacher Xiao Ji, please, say something." Zhao Yisheng hunched his back, his face full of ingratiating smiles. "My methods are all self-taught, just things I figured out on my own; I was forced into it with no other choice. If there's anything I'm doing wrong, just tell me, and I will humbly accept it."

"If I'm really doing a bad job, you can even slap me twice, just please don't..."

Although Liu Zhuren did not know how to perform interventional surgery, he had seen plenty of bleeding patients go to Zhao Zhuren for embolization, so he understood the basic quality of interventional surgery.

Although Zhao Yisheng's surgery was slightly awkward, that was due to the equipment not being handy. It was truly strange that his embolization surgery actually looked better than Zhao Xiangming's.

"Xiao Ji, this surgery... I think it looks pretty good," Liu Zhuren asked after a moment of contemplation.

"Zhuren, Zhao Yisheng, the surgery is done exceptionally well," Ji Xiang gave an affirmative answer.

"Good? Good my ass," the on-duty doctor said with disdain. "Who doesn't know how to engage in mutual commercial flattery? But if you guys keep blowing smoke up Zhao Ge's ass like this, he'll be full of confidence and end up causing trouble. He's just a clinical Attending Physician right now; if he really angers our Zhuren or the head of the Medical Affairs Department, he could lose his public position."

The excitement on Zhao Yisheng's face was wiped away, replaced by disappointment and helplessness.

"If you ask me, we need to find a patient with dark yellow urine to spray Zhao Ge and wake him up. Wake up! This is Yuanliao, a small prefecture-level city. He spends all day thinking about publishing SCI papers. Zhao Ge, you old man, you really have no idea how high the sky is or how thick the earth is."

Liu Zhuren frowned, looking somewhat displeased.

The on-duty doctor was truly casual with his words, and they carried a sickening edge.

"I am telling the truth," Ji Xiang said earnestly to the on-duty doctor.

"I'm doing this for Zhao Ge's own good. Little doctor, you're spraying Zhao Ge with the urine of a diabetic patient. Sure, it gives him a little sweetness, but he's covered in urine from head to toe. If something goes wrong, who's going to support his family?"

Seeing Zhao Zhe's dejected expression, Ji Xiang smiled.

"Teacher Zhao, you're using the guide wires and catheters from the Circulatory Internal Medicine Department for your surgeries, right?"

"Yes, they aren't very smooth, and my surgery can only reach this level; there's no room for further improvement. I've truly put in the effort, perhaps my talent is just poor, there's nothing..."

Your talent is poor? Ji Xiang looked at Zhao Zhe, Zhao Yisheng, in surprise.

Could it be that he doesn't know how strong he is?

Even the system NPC clicked his tongue in wonder, saying that while there were indeed grassroots doctors who were self-taught, you couldn't even count a handful of them in the whole country.

Yet Zhao Zhe, Zhao Yisheng, seemed completely unaware of how well he performed his surgeries.

If you call him stupid, he was able to comprehend interventional surgery on his own and perform it exceptionally well; if you call him smart, he had no idea how good his surgery actually was.

If you say he understands the ways of the world, he's still just an old Attending Physician and Resident Physician; if you say he doesn't, he was able to shamelessly go to Liu Zhuren every year to build connections.

Plus, he had the attributes of a chatterbox and a social butterfly.

He really was a very interesting person.

"Teacher Zhao, it's like this." Ji Xiang didn't even look at the on-duty doctor; he couldn't be bothered to speak to that person. "The guiding catheter is custom-made for coronary artery shaping in the Circulation Department. It's definitely useful for surgeries in the Circulation Department, but for our embolization surgeries, it's a bit cumbersome."

"Right, right, right. I've felt it wasn't very easy to use from the start. But I didn't have any good solutions. I submitted applications several times, but they were all rejected by the Equipment Department. You need to be at the Zhuren level to apply for new consumables; I don't have that qualification."

"If I can't change the world, then I'll just change myself. What else can I do? I've done it for so many years and gotten used to it. I think the guiding catheter is quite useful."

"Hmm." Ji Xiang smiled and nodded. "Teacher Zhao, you..."

"I don't dare to be called a teacher. I'm just an old Attending Physician who will never get promoted, a small clinical doctor. You can just call me Doctor Zhao. Or you can call me Lao Zhao or Zhao Ge, but I don't dare to be called a teacher."

"Zhao Ge, your surgery is... let's put it this way, it's no worse than our Interventional Department Zhuren at the Second Affiliated Hospital."

"!!!" Zhao Zhe was stunned.

The on-duty doctor let out a "pfft" and laughed.

"You guys are really good at bullshitting. If I didn't know that Zhao Ge didn't have any money at home, I would have thought you were scammers. The most valuable things he has are his two kidneys; you aren't here to harvest his kidneys, are you?"

"Just joking," Ji Xiang smiled. "But I am telling the truth."

"Xiao Ji's interventional surgery is done exceptionally well," Liu Zhuren said with emphasis, then patted Zhao Zhe, Zhao Yisheng, on the shoulder. "I never expected to encounter a talent like you in Yuanliao City."

"Liu Zhuren, you flatter me, you flatter me. What kind of talent am I? I'm just working behind closed doors and figuring things out blindly. I can't find anyone here to teach me, so I just look for surgery videos online and do it myself. Heaven knows how I'm doing..."

"Let's go, let's go get something to eat." Seeing that the on-duty doctor was about to make more sarcastic remarks, Liu Zhuren said, "I rushed over right after finishing my surgery at noon, and now I'm a bit hypoglycemic."

"Damn!" Zhao Zhe slapped his own forehead. "Liu Zhuren, I am truly sorry, I haven't hosted you well, I haven't hosted you well. Let's go, let's go eat! Our local stewed chicken with mushrooms is excellent. I ordered a pot; by the time we get there, the chicken will be stewed until it's tender—no, it'll be too tough to eat, but the mushrooms are absolutely a delicacy. Just pick up a chopstick full..."

Zhao Yisheng began to ramble on about stewed chicken with mushrooms.

While talking, he packed up various documents, greeted the on-duty doctor, and left with Liu Zhuren and Ji Xiang.

The on-duty doctor looked on with disdain. "Spraying him with urine won't wake him up; you'd need to give him the runs. Damn it, why can't he just accept his fate? Interventional surgery, is that even something a human should do? Aren't you afraid of getting cancer?"

As he spoke, he lit another cigarette with practiced movements.

"Doctor Zhao, the doctors in your hospital are full of hostility toward you."

Once they were outside, Liu Zhuren said with a smile.

"It's nothing." Zhao Zhe, Zhao Yisheng, shook his head. "They are afraid that I'll have an accident during surgery. We are different from large Grade A Tertiary Hospitals here. When we encounter patients we don't know how to treat or patients whose surgeries are slightly difficult, we are used to sending them to higher-level hospitals."

"But the patients have to have money, too. Not to mention going to the Imperial Capital or Shanghai; just going to the Provincial Hospital, how could it not cost several hundred a day just for food and lodging?"

"There was a patient who went to the First Affiliated Hospital for surgery and secretly used an alcohol stove to cook instant noodles in the hospital's Fire Exit, almost setting the ward on fire."

"The surgery didn't happen, and they were just this close to burning down the First Affiliated Hospital."

"But they really have no money, otherwise I wouldn't have the gall to ask you for a five-hundred-yuan 'Flying Knife' fee for a surgery."

As he spoke, Zhao Zhe sighed deeply.

But he was an optimistic person, and he immediately smiled. "But we have our own advantages here, too."

(End of chapter)