Chapter 442: A Step Further Than Empathy

"Ji Xiang is quite interesting; he doesn't even blink when he lies." Feng Yuqing laughed, "Men, heh."

"Sister Yuqing, Ji Xiang is truly amazing!" Tang Yan viewed the problem from a different angle than Feng Yuqing, and she whispered a rebuttal.

It wasn't because the other party was the big boss who provided her with an annual salary of a million, but because Tang Yan was thoroughly shocked by Ji Xiang's communication with the patient.

Ji Xiang didn't just perform surgeries well; when communicating with the patient, he displayed the qualities of those legendary, slippery, and seasoned Attending Physicians who had been grinding away in Clinical practice for years.

Perhaps to an ordinary person, a doctor should naturally possess such qualities, but anyone who has had contact with Clinical practice knows the difficulty of this.

"Ji Xiang really doesn't say a single truthful word. He's never even been sick; his body is as strong as a calf! 'Experience,' my foot. You know that not a single word out of his mouth can be trusted, including the punctuation marks," Feng Yuqing said.

"Sister Yuqing, has Ji Xiang really never been sick?" Tang Yan was somewhat skeptical.

"Of course. Three years ago... no, four years ago, a bunch of people in their circle went camping in the wild," Feng Yuqing recounted. "But unfortunately, they encountered a mudslide and were trapped on the mountaintop. The others had exhausted their physical strength and had no cell signal, so they could only wait to die. It was Ji Xiang who found the path and carried them down one by one."

"..." Tang Yan was speechless.

This physical strength could truly be called formidable.

"Just like Ji Shu," Feng Yuqing laughed. "You see how Ji Xiang doesn't blink when he lies, and you think what he's saying is true. The patient was completely taken in by his deception; that man is full of hot air."

Is it really like that? Tang Yan was somewhat puzzled.

After Bai Chuzhang and Liu Zhi finished listening to Ji Xiang's exchange with the patient, especially that bit of "playing hard to get" at the end, Liu Zhuren downed his three-and-a-half-tael cup in one gulp.

"Hah~~~" Liu Zhuren let out a breath, feeling thoroughly satisfied. "Xiao Ji is awesome. With just this communication ability, he leaves Wu Zong in the dust. If Wu Zong had this ability, his technical level would be even higher."

"Your Chief Resident is still too green," Bai Chuzhang said. "If you swapped yourself into Ji Xiang's position, it would be absolutely impossible for you to do better than him."

"Lao Bai, how do you think Ji Xiang's brain is wired? It's too awesome," Liu Zhuren did not stint on his praise at all.

Bai Chuzhang smiled without a word.

Liu Zhuren, however, was extremely excited. He poured himself another drink, and after finishing two more cups, he said to himself, "Doctors have to deal with people—all kinds of people—and the most important thing is that you cannot refuse. That is why I have always believed that to become a top-tier doctor, one must have super-strong communication skills."

"Xiao Wu is quite smart, but his empathy is insufficient. But Lao Bai, you say that once empathy is sufficient, it leads to being shrouded in all sorts of negative emotions. You can't have your cake and eat it too."

"Five percent of people have more or less antisocial personality disorder," Bai Chuzhang said. "This is very obvious in the Medical Affairs Department's Dispute Handling Office. Dazhi, do you want to transfer Wu Zong over to experience it? My Medical Affairs Department is a big melting pot; if he doesn't come to be tempered by fire, how can he become good steel?"

"No, don't even think about it!" Liu Zhuren glared at Bai Chuzhang and refused without hesitation. "Xiao Ji is truly great. Lao Bai, do you think he can stay?"

"No," Bai Chuzhang gave an answer that left no room for suspense.

"You really are blunt; you could at least leave me some hope," Liu Zhuren sighed.

"That's exactly to keep you from holding onto hope," Bai Chuzhang said. "Being able to use Standardized Residency Training to keep Ji Xiang here for three years is already the limit. You know better than I do that he was scouted by Qin Chu of Shanghai less than two months after arriving. You still dream of keeping a person like this at the Second Affiliated Hospital?"

Liu Zhuren knew that everything his old friend said was true, and he sighed deeply.

Qin Chu kept his eyes closed. Ling Tian's expression changed constantly, but in the end, it turned into a long sigh.

"Boss, I can't do it," Ling Tian said softly.

Qin Chu still didn't speak; his eyelids twitched slightly, as if he had entered the REM stage.

After a few seconds of silence, Ling Tian gave a bitter smile. "Boss, I never thought Ji Xiang would be this strong."

"Outsiders don't understand, but we do." Seeing that Qin Chu didn't speak, but that there didn't seem to be any anger on his brow, Ling Tian tentatively said, "There are many people who perform surgery well. Those Surgical Beasts in the South who don't have a Practicing Certificate are young, have sharp eyes, and perform Microsurgery that makes people click their tongues in wonder."

"But Ji Xiang is different."

Qin Chu exhaled lightly. "For a moment there, I seemed to drift off."

"Drift off?" Ling Tian habitually played the straight man.

Although he looked arrogant, he always managed to be just right in front of his boss, including playing the straight man, which had become a habit.

"Ling Tian, what do you think is good about the way Ji Xiang communicates with the patient?" Qin Chu kept his eyes closed, but his eyeballs were now still, having passed the REM stage.

"He can speak from the patient's perspective, turning what was originally a doctor-to-patient discussion of a condition into a conversation between patients. His affinity is very strong; it's surprising. His style of doing things doesn't look like a young doctor; even old doctors with over a decade of Clinical experience might not be able to do it."

"No," Qin Chu said in a low voice. "Do you think it's possible that Ji Xiang has actually undergone a similar surgery?"

"Boss, surely not," Ling Tian was surprised.

Qin Chu opened his eyes. In just a few minutes, Qin Chu's eyes had turned yellow, as if time had left incredibly deep marks on him.

Ling Tian was surprised; what was wrong with the boss?

"I have a feeling that Ji Xiang has experienced it," Qin Chu said slowly, as if he had aged ten years in an instant.

"Boss, you mean..."

"It's not that Ji Xiang had his own Gallbladder removed, but that when he comes into contact with a patient, he can construct a similar experience."

"Empathy?"

"It goes a step further than empathy," Qin Chu said. "This is a talent—a talent stronger than surgery."

"!!!"

"Sigh, if only he could have stayed back then, how good that would have been." Qin Chu was somewhat dazed, his memory returning to that academic conference held for Ji Xiang.

A young man in the prime of his life with a bright future; himself, appearing as a talent scout with a discerning eye.

He had even invited the only Academician in the field of interventional medicine to serve as a backdrop. If things had gone smoothly, all of this would have become a beautiful story, and both he and Ji Xiang would be objects of admiration for future generations.

What a pity.

The more Qin Chu thought about it, the more he felt it was a pity; the more he thought, the lower his mood sank. His nose felt slightly sore, and his heart was heavy with complex emotions.

That day, he had experienced a dream-like encounter in a daze, and it wasn't until he saw Ji Xiang communicating with the patient that he suddenly made the connection.

"Boss, please get some rest," Ling Tian comforted Qin Chu.

"No, watch the program to the end first."

The program continued, but the camera had already landed on the other Interns.

Their awkwardness and immaturity formed a sharp contrast with Ji Xiang's seasoned and smooth demeanor.

(End of chapter)