Chapter 677: I'm Afraid I Can't Keep Him

"Snap~"

Liu Zhi slapped the table, causing the disposable bowls and dishes to bounce up and clatter together.

"It's too much. No wonder so many key talents have run off to the south."

"It's not like you don't know; it's always been this shitty," Bai Chuzhang said indifferently. "If you hadn't become a department head, wouldn't you have gone south by now too? Stop putting on an act."

"If you're unhappy, don't take it out on me," Liu Zhuren said with disdain.

Bai Chuzhang began to tidy up the bowls and dishes, preparing to eat.

His movements were precise, careful, and gentle. Liu Zhi knew him very well and knew that Bai Chuzhang was mulling something over at this moment.

"Lao Bai, it's just a small workstation; why does the hospital have to be like this?"

"Xiao Ji has been in the spotlight too much, and there are always people who get jealous," Bai Chuzhang sighed. "It would have been better if he hadn't gone to participate in that variety show, but now? It's harder than hard. It was already at an Epic level of difficulty, and now it's turned straight into Legendary."

Liu Zhuren focused his thoughts for a moment, then finally let out a deep sigh.

Indeed, for a Standardized Training Doctor to want to establish their own workstation in a large Grade A Tertiary Hospital like the Second Affiliated Hospital—which ranks in the top three in the province—and focus on scientific research, the very idea sounded like a fantasy.

It was likely that Lao Bai had faced immense pressure when presenting the proposal at the hospital-wide meeting and when sounding out the Dean beforehand.

It was normal that it didn't pass; Liu Zhuren didn't think there was anything surprising about it.

"We have to think of a way," Bai Chuzhang said softly and gently.

"Hahahaha." Liu Zhuren didn't know what he had remembered, but he laughed out loud.

"What did you think of?" Bai Chuzhang glanced at his old friend and asked.

"I thought of your ex-girlfriend."

"……" Bai Chuzhang continued to tidy up the bowls and chopsticks.

"I remember one time when we were raiding the Sun Well, right in the middle of clearing it, your ex-girlfriend called."

"That was how many years ago? Why bring her up?" Bai Chuzhang was slightly embarrassed.

Liu Zhuren ignored him and continued, "It seems she had gotten married, and her husband drank too much often, coming home drunk in the middle of the night. Your ex-girlfriend would lock him outside and not let him in, and the two of them would start arguing."

"Heh." Bai Chuzhang gave a faint smile.

"You're a real bastard; you were raiding the Sun Well while giving your ex-girlfriend advice."

"Open the door. No matter how late it is, when a man comes home, there should be someone to leave a light on for him. We don't just leave the light on; we also leave the door unlocked," Bai Chuzhang recalled the past, and the unhappiness from just a moment ago gradually dissipated.

"In the middle of the night, a mother and child at home, with the front door wide open. Public security in those years wasn't as good as it is now; people had to be careful even with anti-theft doors, let alone leaving the door open in the middle of the night."

"Leaving the door and the light on for a man—isn't that what should be done? Don't you think it's warm?" Bai Chuzhang said.

"Only someone as devious as you could come up with a trick like that. Which man wouldn't be on edge when he goes out to drink? Damn it, his wife and child are at home, the door is wide open—what if a thief gets in?" Liu Zhuren remarked with emotion. "Drinking is a small matter, but if you get home and find your wife and child are gone, who could keep drinking?"

"Is there any other good way? If this trick doesn't work, then they might as well just get a divorce."

"That's why I'm saying, don't be in a rush; who knows when a wicked idea will pop out of that devious brain of yours," Liu Zhuren laughed.

"It's difficult. Xiao Ji has the skill, and I barely managed to get him an Intermediate Professional Title, but the key is that he doesn't have a permanent staff position," Bai Chuzhang said, letting out a deep sigh.

The object of his battle was not his ex-girlfriend's husband, whose weak spot he could grasp with a simple turn of his mind.

Now, he was facing a dark, impenetrable wall—an iron-clad system and set of rules. Trying to find a crack in it was as difficult as ascending to heaven.

Even if the Dean expressed support for Ji Xiang, or even expressed a willingness for Ji Xiang to apply for the Outstanding Youth Fund at the Second Affiliated Hospital, once they encountered something that violated organizational principles, they would retreat far away.

"Take it slow, don't be in a hurry," Liu Zhuren poured a glass of wine for Bai Chuzhang. "Lao Bai, you really think highly of Xiao Ji. With so many resources, you could at least build up a department head. If I didn't know you inside and out, I would definitely suspect there was something going on between you two."

"I just want fewer people to die," Bai Chuzhang said. "Our hospital's interventional level is too weak. Of the Four Great Vajras, only Zhao Xiangming, the one least capable of fighting, is left. Many emergency rescues can't even be performed."

Liu Zhuren raised an eyebrow; he knew this was all a false explanation, and listening to it was useless.

Lao Bai was unhappy, so he should find a lighter topic.

"Lao Bai, tell me the truth, have you and your ex-girlfriend rekindled your old romance?"

"Bullshit."

"With the door closed and just the two of us, tell me the truth."

"I'm not that kind of person," Bai Chuzhang said. "After we drive on the highway once, we do feel that the car's power is stronger. When you lightly press the gas pedal, the increase in power is more sensitive than before driving on the highway."

Liu Zhuren was stunned for a moment, then he looked at Lao Bai with a smirk as he drove the conversation.

"There are mainly two reasons: first, some carbon deposits in the engine are cleaned out; second, after the car has been driven on the highway for a while, the car's computer learns and adapts to our high-speed driving habits and will adjust the fuel injection volume.

So, if your car feels like it has more power and you haven't driven it on the highway, then your car might have been stolen and driven by someone else—and they took it on the highway."

"How could I not know if someone else drove it? It's not like I don't have a car; why would I look for trouble for myself?"

"She encountered a difficult situation and asked me for help. It didn't cost me anything; I just had to offer an idea. Besides, it didn't even delay our raiding. I'm not wrong, am I?"

"Hahaha, but it's been a long time since I heard you 'drive'."

"I was just giving an example," Bai Chuzhang smiled slightly, then sighed immediately. "It's been a long time since I've been in surgery; even if I wanted to 'drive', I can't find the place. The Medical Affairs Department is nothing like the operating room, where you can say anything once the door is closed."

"That's true, you can't exactly 'drive' with a furious Family Member. If you did that, hahahaha." Liu Zhuren already had the image in his mind and laughed heartily.

"Eat," Bai Chuzhang said. "I still have to... specifically..."

"Lao Bai, why are you in such a hurry?" Liu Zhuren asked.

"I have to be. Xiao Ji hasn't even been back for a month, and he has already completed 112 cases of Renal Cancer Interventional Embolization plus partial surgical resection. The Provincial Natural Science Foundation... let's not talk about that. Recently, Neymar's surgery was squeezed for everything it was worth by Xiao Ji, and he has already published 6 papers."

"……" Liu Zhuren stared in astonishment.

He performed surgeries every day, saw patients, and went home after work. Ji Xiang's kidney surgeries were all under Liu Zhuren's nose, so he knew about those.

But Liu Zhuren never expected that after coming back from filming the variety show, Ji Xiang could actually squeeze 6 papers out of Neymar's surgery.

"If I don't push this forward, I'm worried I won't be able to keep him."

"……"

Liu Zhuren was speechless; Xiao Ji was just too capable.

(End of chapter)