Chapter 334: These People Are All Crazy

"Come here." Zhao Jixiang thought for a moment and beckoned his son to come out.

Sitting on the sofa in the living room, Zhao Jixiang recounted today's events from beginning to end.

He did not hide the various underlying motives or the rhythm of shifting blame, telling Zhao Tianjiao everything exactly as it happened.

Zhao Tianjiao was his own son, so Zhao Jixiang did not spout high-sounding platitudes; especially regarding the small details of his motives, he not only described his own thoughts at the time but also shared his guesses about the intentions of Medical Affairs Department Bai Chuzhang, Zhao Xiangming, and others.

Young people need to grow, and Zhao Jixiang did not want his son to repeat the detours he had taken himself.

As for the surgery, Zhao Jixiang glossed over it.

That was not important.

"That is about how it went. Do you understand?"

Zhao Tianjiao's mind was in a mess after being told all this. He looked at his father in confusion and asked only after a long while, "Dad, there are a few parts I didn't understand."

"Speak."

"It's right that you didn't let Ji Xiang perform the surgery; after all, he doesn't even have a Practicing Certificate. But why did Medical Affairs Department Bai Chuzhang insist on doing it, risking so much?" Zhao Tianjiao asked.

"Medical Affairs Department Bai Chuzhang has one particularly great advantage—intuition."

"Intuition?" Zhao Tianjiao was taken aback.

Zhao Jixiang smiled slightly, trying to make his tone as approachable as possible, wanting his son to accept this reality.

"Let's put it this way: Medical Affairs Department Bai Chuzhang looks at problems differently than others."

"Oh?"

"Essentially, he is better than me. Whether it's handling a Medical Dispute or performing surgery, he is better than me. I admit this."

"But you are a Vice President now, and he is only a Medical Affairs Department Director."

"It's different." Zhao Jixiang waved his hand. "Your grandfather was once the director of a district health center. He spent decades immersed in this industry, from being a Barefoot Doctor to passing the secondary vocational school exams, with classmates spread far and wide."

"I borrowed your grandfather's light, just as you are borrowing mine."

Zhao Tianjiao listened intently; he knew this was the family's legacy.

If one couldn't quite call it a legacy back in his grandfather's time, then from his father to himself, it could already be said that the seeds of a legacy had been sown.

"When I first started working, your grandfather told me not to look down on the grand competitions. If others looked down on them, that was their business, but I had to achieve good results."

"Later, many steps were more or less the same as what your grandfather had envisioned."

"I didn't take any detours and always had my own goals, unwavering." Zhao Jixiang looked at Zhao Tianjiao and said calmly, "Medical Affairs Department Bai Chuzhang is different. He has talent, but when he first came to work in Clinical, he was like a block of wood, knowing only how to perform surgeries and treat illnesses."

"For five or six years in the middle, he was cast into the cold by the old department director because he performed surgeries too well. I've told you about what happened after that."

"I remember." Zhao Tianjiao nodded cautiously. When it came to Medical Affairs Department Bai Chuzhang, he felt an inexplicable sense of awe.

"Medical Affairs Department Bai Chuzhang is technically very strong, and his perspective on problems is different. He can always fight a desperate battle and, in the most precarious of ways, carve out a path that others think is impossible to walk."

"Look, he's still a bit like Ji Xiang."

"Dad..."

When Ji Xiang was mentioned, Zhao Tianjiao felt unconvinced but also incredibly jealous. He knew jealousy was bad and forcibly suppressed it.

"Don't be unconvinced. You must have an accurate perception of yourself to have precise judgment and expectations." Zhao Jixiang said calmly, "Look at Ji Xiang. How much of a stir has he caused since coming to the hospital? And this was all done without a Practicing Certificate."

"Many people risk violating regulations; do you know how hard it is to reach this point?"

"..." Zhao Tianjiao sighed inwardly.

"However, don't be anxious. Slow and steady is faster. He is very strong; you must admit that. The Practicing Physician Qualification exam is more important than the grand competitions, do you know that?"

"I know."

"Gu Lao's student, Professor Zhou Tianbo, who is now doing Kidney Transplantation at the First Affiliated Hospital, was a hidden gem back then. It was precisely because he got first place in the country on the Practicing Physician Qualification exam that he was spotted by Gu Lao."

"First place in the country is a bit hard, Dad." Zhao Tianjiao grimaced.

"I know, and you don't need that." Zhao Jixiang smiled. "Just getting into the top ten in the province is enough. It's a beautiful resume. You can at least lead others by a little bit in the skills test; the rest is up to you."

Zhao Tianjiao nodded vigorously.

"Practicing Physician, provincial natural science project." Zhao Jixiang said, then laughed self-deprecatingly, "Medical Affairs Department Bai Chuzhang's nose is truly sharper than a dog's. The path he planned for Ji Xiang is the same as ours. If I didn't know him, I would definitely think Ji Xiang was his illegitimate son."

"That's right, Dad, why is Medical Affairs Department Bai Chuzhang doing this?" Zhao Tianjiao asked.

"That group of people are all crazy." Zhao Jixiang pointed to his own head. "They've been brainwashed since they were young to the point of being neurotic. To them, the four words 'treating illnesses and saving lives' are more important than the heavens, so sometimes they are willing to risk their reputations to do many things that others can't understand."

"Medical Affairs Department Bai Chuzhang's attitude toward Ji Xiang is just pure appreciation. Ji Xiang is also capable and refreshes Medical Affairs Department Bai Chuzhang's perception time and time again; he is just pushing the boat along with the current."

"Treating illnesses and saving lives, isn't that right?"

"Right?" Zhao Jixiang looked at his son with mockery. "They say the hospital is being pushed to the market, but the pricing power and such aren't in our hands. The so-called pushing to the market is just a way to shed burdens."

Letting doctors and nurses earn their own keep isn't even the half of it; the province and the city still come to ask for money and beg for donations from time to time. Currently, 80% of the state subsidies for public hospitals are being withheld by the city, and on top of that, the city still owes our hospital 500 million."

"!!!"

Zhao Tianjiao had no idea that such a thing was happening.

"Forget it, talking about this is useless. You'll understand once you've worked longer." Zhao Jixiang said, "Focus. Your main goal right now is the Practicing Physician Qualification exam. What I want, and what you want, are results."

"Okay." Zhao Tianjiao replied cautiously.

"Go read your books. Don't go to the department recently; I'll have a word with Professor Deng. Surgery doesn't need to be rushed; the exam is more important."

"And don't be anxious." Zhao Jixiang said, "In the old Japanese navy, there was an important position called an Elite Lookout. Only those with exceptionally good eyesight were recruited to be lookouts. It is said that in the dark, they could see ships 20 nautical miles away."

"That's amazing."

"Amazing? In front of the US military, these were nothing but weaklings, because the US military had radar."

"..." Zhao Tianjiao was stunned.

"With me as your radar, even if Ji Xiang is the elite of the elite, so what?" Zhao Jixiang laughed. "As for Medical Affairs Department Bai Chuzhang and Liu Zhuren, they have no blood relation to Ji Xiang, so they are nothing to worry about. As for people, to forge iron, one must be strong oneself."

Zhao Tianjiao fully accepted his father's teachings and obediently returned to his room to study.

Although there were still many things in his father's advice that Zhao Tianjiao could not understand at all, he remembered them all.

(End of chapter)