Chapter 301: Don't Ask!

"Xiao Ji, how did you get here so fast?" Bai Chuzhang asked while changing clothes.

"I was helping Meng Laoshi in the Emergency Department for a while."

Still young, willing to hang around the Emergency Department, Bai Chuzhang watched Ji Xiang with a smile, recalling how full of energy he himself had been when he was young.

"Bai Chuzhang, I heard there's a problem over at the blood station. What exactly is going on?" Ji Xiang asked.

"Don't ask." Bai Chuzhang waved his hand. "You're still young, stay away from these things. You're still young, get in touch with some brighter things."

Bai Chuzhang hurried to finish changing his clothes, feeling that his tone had been a bit blunt just now, so he shifted his tone and said gently, "Everyone understands the main reason, but no one is willing to say it."

"Oh?"

"The main thing is that the investment isn't enough." Bai Chuzhang sighed. "The blood station is indeed a good job, but to say how corrupt it is, that's not necessarily true. At the very beginning, because selling blood was rampant—have you read *Chronicle of a Blood Merchant*?"

"I've heard of it, but I haven't read it," Ji Xiang replied.

"Have a look when you have time, see what the eighties were like. Later, it was changed to voluntary blood donation; anything that involves 'voluntary' duty is bound to have problems. Setting aside all that nonsense, just look at the rule that direct relatives can use blood for free after donating—does that look like a Ponzi scheme to you?"

Speaking of Ponzi schemes, Ji Xiang had first heard about them from his own grandfather.

Connecting it to the blood station, Ji Xiang hadn't expected such a typical financial scam to come up in Bai Chuzhang's words.

"Since it's a Ponzi structure, there will always be a day when it can no longer be sustained. There's no point in saying too much; at the very least, for the past twenty-plus years, most emergency patients have had blood to use," Bai Chuzhang said seriously. "I am just a Director of Medical Affairs; I can't manage that much, nor have I studied it much. As for encountering some unfair things, it depends on how smoothly you resolve them."

"It's not that you can't push back hard, after all, you have the right on your side," Bai Chuzhang said, giving Ji Xiang a deep look.

Ji Xiang felt something was off and looked back, staring intently.

"It's like what you did in Shanghai; it was indeed satisfying, but it added many unnecessary variables to your future." Bai Chuzhang gave Ji Xiang a deep look.

He wasn't as long-winded as the System NPC. If they were in the System Operating Room, Ji Xiang was certain the System NPC, with hands behind his back and hunched over, would have already started instilling values, but Bai Chuzhang didn't continue.

"Thank you, Bai Chuzhang," Ji Xiang said softly.

"You're welcome." Bai Chuzhang accepted Ji Xiang's thanks calmly. "Everyone has a time when they are young, and I know that feeling of hot blood rushing to one's head. Don't worry, you're still young."

Bai Chuzhang thought of the swallow back at his hometown when he was a child.

Who knew if it would come back in the future? Regardless, having that thing around was a good omen, a sign of life.

Ji Xiang was that swallow in his heart, which was why Bai Chuzhang had rambled a bit more to explain the ins and outs to Ji Xiang.

Bai Chuzhang was even a bit worried that Ji Xiang, with his solitary courage, would blow up a matter that had already settled down and stir up trouble.

After all, it's better to avoid trouble than to add to it; who would want to deal with these messy things in the hospital in the middle of the night?

"Go back and get some rest."

"Bai Chuzhang, what about you?" Ji Xiang asked curiously.

"I still have to wait at the Medical Affairs Department." Bai Chuzhang covered his forehead, looking distressed and very exhausted. "The patient needs to be stable after surgery, and I need to report to Sun Yuanzhang. Look at what time it is? Reporting now will definitely get me scolded, but not reporting will get me scolded tomorrow just the same.

Damn it, only a fool would work in the Medical Affairs Department."

"Hahaha." Although Ji Xiang was young, having watched his mother do business for many years, he could understand Bai Chuzhang's state of mind to some extent.

"Go on, today's matter..." Bai Chuzhang said, looking at Ji Xiang curiously. "Doctor Xiao Ji, let me ask you something."

"Bai Chuzhang, go ahead."

"Can you handle other emergency cases?" Bai Chuzhang asked a question that he himself felt was absurd.

Yet, in that very moment, his sixth sense told Bai Chuzhang that Ji Xiang could definitely handle them.

"Bai Chuzhang..." Ji Xiang shuddered, his thoughts flashing like lightning as he recalled his actions, finding no flaws. "I am still a Standardized Training Doctor."

"Fine, go back and rest," Bai Chuzhang said. "If you have any clinical problems, come find me."

Ji Xiang savored Bai Chuzhang's words; he wasn't in a hurry, nor did he go straight home, but instead went to the Emergency Department.

"Meng Laoshi, I'm back."

Meng Qingfei was sitting in the Consultation Room looking at his phone when Ji Xiang walked in and said this.

"Oh, you're back," Meng Qingfei smiled. "Did the surgery go smoothly?"

"Smoothly." Ji Xiang didn't brag, just answered plainly.

"That's good." Meng Qingfei didn't ask further.

"Meng Laoshi, let me ask you a question." Ji Xiang asked the same question he had just asked earlier.

Deep in the night, it was the perfect time for some heart-to-heart talk.

"Oh, I don't know much about the blood station side, but what Bai Chuzhang said makes sense," Meng Qingfei said. "Let me give you an example."

"We in the Emergency Department often encounter Spleen Rupture; once we see it, we rush them to Hepatobiliary to have the spleen removed to save their life. Although the surgery isn't difficult, it's a life. Now, here comes the problem—how much does a Spleen Rupture surgery cost?"

Ji Xiang was stunned; he had never thought about money.

"350 yuan. And that's the price after it was raised 2-3 times in recent years under the premise of trying to increase doctors' income."

"..." Ji Xiang spread his hands.

In the operating room, he had asked the patient if they needed a Spring Coil or a Gelatin Sponge because the System NPC had mentioned it, so Ji Xiang had memorized it mechanically.

Now, talking about the surgical fee for a Spleen Rupture, the topic felt exceptionally foreign.

"350. Go to Fa Shou... you know Fa Shou, right?"

"I don't."

"It's a large chain of hair salons in our Provincial Hospital city. I used to go there, but later they raised the prices so much I couldn't stand it. A simple crew cut costs 50 yuan. 350, at Fa Shou, can only get you a simple women's haircut."

"A life, and a woman's hairstyle—see, it's just that absurd."

Ji Xiang was speechless.

"I'm not done yet. From that 350 yuan, you still have to deduct the costs for operating room equipment, standard surgical instruments, and the consumption of water, electricity, and gas. What's left is the manual labor fee for all the doctors and nurses on the team."

"When you break it down, it's possible that this whole group of people actually loses money by performing the surgery."

"Loses money?"

"Correct," Meng Qingfei nodded, "Actually, it doesn't matter; we just follow the regulations for state investment, though there isn't much profit margin for medical staff."

"Just look at how much of the domestic medical market the Putian Series has eaten up, and they can make that much money. If we were to switch entirely to private hospitals, can you imagine it? Do you dare to imagine it?"

"Teacher, do you wish for us to switch to private?" Ji Xiang asked a sharp question.

"I do not," Meng Qingfei shook his head, "Over these years, this place of mine has already been washed by Liby more times than I know."

As he spoke, he pointed to his own head.

"Just muddle through and do the work; curing illnesses and saving people, earning a bit of money to support the family, that's quite good."

(End of this chapter)