Chapter 802: Hell Difficulty (Part II)

Things were getting more and more wrong.

This was nowhere near as simple as a refund; it was practically life-threatening.

Ji Xiang realized that if he were to let his guard down, he feared he would fail to complete the Empathy task of Hell Difficulty.

Although Ji Xiang had gained a lot of experience through countless instances of Empathy, the difficulty this time and the hospital's attitude toward solving the problem caught him off guard.

From thinking he was the Patient to just wanting a refund, but after actually experiencing it, Ji Xiang felt everything was permeated with strangeness.

"Fine, you all hold a meeting to discuss it." Ji Xiang gritted his teeth and agreed to the Director of Medical Affairs' words, but Ji Xiang immediately added, "However, I want to observe."

"This..." The Director of Medical Affairs rubbed his hands, his face full of difficulty. "Young man, you also know our predicament. After all, it is an internal meeting of the unit, and you are the Family Member of the complaining Patient; doing this seems inappropriate."

"Internal? Then why am I here?" Ji Xiang asked with slight anger.

"Sigh." The expression of the Director of Medical Affairs twisted and turned, finally settling into a sigh.

Although he sighed, the Director of Medical Affairs simply would not budge; his evasive attitude was already written on his face.

Ji Xiang also knew that the request he had just made was a bit excessive, but the reason he said it was to further increase the pressure.

"It's fine if I don't observe the meeting process, but I won't leave. I will wait outside the meeting room. Who knows if your hospital has a back door? What if you all sneak away after the meeting?!"

Ji Xiang had already taken a half-step back; the Director of Medical Affairs had no more reason to refuse.

He nodded helplessly.

Ji Xiang followed behind the short, fat Director of Medical Affairs, saying nothing, just silently fiddling with his phone.

"Young man, what are you doing?" After the Director of Medical Affairs finished calling the various functional departments of the institution in front of Ji Xiang, he saw that Ji Xiang was acting very strangely, so he asked as if trying to get close.

"Editing a video." Ji Xiang said without looking up. "You are an elder; there are a few idioms you must know."

Hearing Ji Xiang's eerie words, the Director of Medical Affairs broke into a cold sweat.

"Young man, what idioms?"

"Grafting flowers onto a different tree, trumping up a charge, spinning a cocoon around oneself, and regretting not acting sooner."

Ji Xiang spat out the words one by one, like bullets, beating the Director of Medical Affairs until he was covered in blood.

"You go ahead and get busy. Anyway, it's the same for me to organize data wherever I am. It's truly convenient now; it's the era of intelligent technology. With a phone and a power bank in hand, I'm not afraid of going anywhere, wouldn't you say?"

"Yes, yes, yes." The Director of Medical Affairs was extremely helpless.

He took a deep look at Ji Xiang, especially at the phone in Ji Xiang's hand, and after his expression shifted slightly, he took Ji Xiang to the meeting.

Following behind the Director of Medical Affairs, Ji Xiang arrived outside the meeting room of the Central Hospital.

Just as if it had been agreed upon, Ji Xiang stood outside the door without attempting to go in, nor did he argue with anyone.

Soon, some men and women filed in one after another; they looked like the Department Heads of the functional departments.

Ji Xiang looked calm, but the anger in his heart burned brighter and brighter.

It was just a refund, the simplest thing. He heard from his teacher that before there were Intelligent Systems, one could just sign and stamp the receipt, and it wouldn't even take a minute.

Now the Second Affiliated Hospital had an intelligent system, and a Doctor could just tap the keyboard twice to finish it; who would have thought it would be this difficult.

Yet the Central Hospital was making such a huge fuss, even holding some kind of meeting.

It is truly incomprehensible!

A bunch of rice buckets, a bunch of trash!

But Ji Xiang's understanding was still flawed; he had underestimated what Hell Difficulty was.

Originally, he thought that if everyone got together, it would be solved quickly. But time ticked away second by second, and Ji Xiang's legs were a bit numb, yet it still hadn't ended.

Sounds of arguing intermittently came from inside the meeting room; it looked like even with the Dean presiding, he couldn't suppress everyone's opinions.

Ji Xiang's heart gradually sank.

It seems Hell Difficulty is indeed Hell Difficulty.

Although he had previously threatened the Director of Medical Affairs about reporting with his real name, Ji Xiang was just making a casual threat at the time.

However, as the meeting time continued to drag on, the thoughts in Ji Xiang's mind became clearer and clearer, and his premonition became worse and worse.

Ji Xiang began to harden his resolve.

If he couldn't have an easy time, he definitely wouldn't let them have one either.

It was just a refund!

To be unable to solve it, what use were they!!

A bunch of trash!!!

After a full hour or so, the Director of Medical Affairs came out with a face full of frustration.

Seeing the expression on the short, fat man, Ji Xiang already knew the outcome; everything was written on his face.

He couldn't understand why it would be like this.

"Young man, come to my office." The Director of Medical Affairs said helplessly.

Ji Xiang did not refuse; it looked like the Director of Medical Affairs had already tried his best.

He followed behind the short, fat man straight to the Director of Medical Affairs' office on the first floor.

"Young man, I have already tried my best."

"And the result?" Ji Xiang didn't listen to what others said; he looked at their actions.

"Every department has its own difficulties. To put it bluntly, it's a scattered mess." The Director of Medical Affairs sighed and said, full of frustration.

"What do I do?"

The short, fat man froze for at least 3 seconds before finally saying, "Don't be anxious. It's getting late today; tomorrow morning I will take you to the municipal National Health Commission."

"Municipal National Health Commission?! What for?" Ji Xiang was startled.

"To file a complaint at the municipal National Health Commission, go through the litigation process, and then the hospital pays the money."

"!!!"

What kind of bizarre train of thought is this?!

Ji Xiang's consciousness was filled with question marks and exclamation points.

He had never imagined that getting a refund could actually reach hell-level difficulty, nor had he imagined that the Director of Medical Affairs would suggest he go file a complaint himself, and that he would even accompany him to do so.

Was he just bored and looking for trouble?

It was just a refund, yet it required filing a complaint and initiating a formal procedure.

"You aren't joking, are you?" Ji Xiang looked at the short, chubby man in bewilderment and asked.

"No, I really am not," the Director of Medical Affairs said helplessly. "The medical insurance office, the Information Center, the Outpatient Office, and other relevant functional departments sat together for a meeting; you saw it too, and in the end... sigh."

All his unwillingness and grievances were contained in that one sigh.

Ji Xiang stared blankly at the Director of Medical Affairs; the world was absurd to the Extreme Point, and based on Ji Xiang's understanding and perception, he simply could not fathom what had happened.

"Rest assured, you definitely won't be shorted any money; it's just that we have to follow certain procedures," the Director of Medical Affairs promised repeatedly.

Ji Xiang didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

Is this about the money?!

"What is your surname?" Ji Xiang asked very calmly.

"My surname is Wei," the short, chubby man's attitude was warm.

"Director Wei, I am a person who likes to get to the bottom of things. Since you cannot solve the problem on your end, then just wait for the call from the city's Public Opinion Monitoring," Ji Xiang said coldly.

The short, chubby man stared blankly at Ji Xiang.

"24 hours," Ji Xiang gave a definitive time. "If it still doesn't work, I will take a banner and hang it at the city government compound."

"!!!"

"Have you ever seen a Medical Disturbance? Young people nowadays don't know about them, but I think at your age, you must understand," Ji Xiang suddenly smiled.

Director Wei nodded, his expression tense.

"I should be the most difficult type to deal with," Ji Xiang said. "However, my only goal is for the money to return to my medical insurance card; I'm not taking a single cent of advantage from the hospital. That's not an unreasonable request, is it?"

"But, we really do have difficulties on our end."

"Fine," Ji Xiang stood up and smiled coldly. "You are wasting my time, so just wait to die together."

The Director of Medical Affairs also couldn't understand Ji Xiang's train of thought; it was such a trivial matter that ordinary Patients or Family Members would have just accepted it. Moreover, he was taking him to handle it personally, so Ji Xiang didn't even need to run around; in half a month to a month, the hospital would remit the cash to him from their account.

No matter how you looked at it, it didn't warrant this.

The Director of Medical Affairs felt that he hadn't explained some things clearly, which caused the young man before him to misjudge the situation.

He coughed, organized his thoughts, and had just started to speak when Ji Xiang interrupted him.

Ji Xiang said everything the Director of Medical Affairs was about to say; the Director of Medical Affairs was inexplicably surprised, as the young man stated it simply and clearly, and even more detailed than the explanation he had prepared himself.

"Are you also a Doctor?" the Director of Medical Affairs asked sheepishly.

"I worked as a Doctor before. The administrative staff who don't understand the business meddle too much in Clinical affairs, so I resigned," Ji Xiang didn't deny it and said it directly.

A feeling of having found a kindred spirit arose in the Director of Medical Affairs' heart, but before he could speak, Ji Xiang continued.

"Whether I have been a Doctor or not is not important, and I won't sympathize with you just because I was once a Doctor."

"My request is very simple: follow the normal process and refund the fees to the medical insurance card."

"This request is not unreasonable. If you still cannot do it, I have reason to believe that your hospital is making things difficult for me."

"Therefore, do not blame me for being impolite."

"!!!" The Director of Medical Affairs smiled bitterly in helplessness, picked up his teacup, filled it with water, and gulped it all down.

Seeing that Ji Xiang was playing with his phone and not recording, he began to tell Ji Xiang what had actually happened.

The newly replaced system was a complete mess because of that company that claimed technology had no borders and had fooled them.

Simply put, even when they copied it, they failed.

The system was full of bugs, and even after running for 3 years, there were still all kinds of problems.

Over the past few years, the hospital had done countless amounts of useless work because of this.

The Director of Medical Affairs also had a headache; he kept focusing on this point, wanting to win Ji Xiang's consensus and stand on Ji Xiang's side.

But now Ji Xiang was no longer speaking; he just silently played with his phone, looking up at the Director of Medical Affairs from time to time.

Ji Xiang's gaze carried very complex emotions, and even more so, a bit of resentment and sharpness; the Director of Medical Affairs saw it very clearly.

"I hope you..."

"Director Wei, let me tell you a story."

Just as the Director of Medical Affairs was preparing his closing statement, Ji Xiang suddenly said.

"Go ahead, please."

"I have a friend who is also a Doctor. One day while seeing patients in the Outpatient Department, a 4-year-old girl came in. The parent said that 4 years ago, when the child was just born, she was premature, and many people advised her to give up."

"Later, my friend performed a physical examination, looked at all the test results, and believed the child was fine, and explained it clearly to the girl's mother. She gained confidence and persisted. 4 years later, the child is very healthy and full of life."

"Being a Doctor, although it is just a profession, is not worth singing praises about, and the various ways administrative departments boast about hardships are disgusting, but!"

Ji Xiang raised his voice.

Every word he said struck a chord in the Director of Medical Affairs' heart.

"The sense of achievement always exists. Like my friend, he was especially happy to see the little girl he diagnosed 4 years ago grow up healthy."

"Doctors, more or less, all have some sentiment."

"Making things difficult for Patients and Family Members is, in my view, the most despicable thing."

The Director of Medical Affairs started breaking out in a cold sweat again.

"It's not exactly making things difficult; it really is a problem with the Intelligent System," he explained sheepishly.

"Was your brainstem removed?"

The Director of Medical Affairs was startled and sighed, "The brainstem removal is also the business of the Lao Liu family. I feel that their whole family keeps getting sick because they have done too many evil deeds."

Ji Xiang also didn't expect the Director of Medical Affairs to have such deep resentment toward the Lao Liu family.

However, this had nothing to do with Ji Xiang; he raised his phone.

"There are truly quite a few people with complaints about your hospital. The video has only been up for 20 minutes, and it already has several hundred likes and shares."

"Why did you post the video first!" the Director of Medical Affairs was startled.

"I said it: if it isn't resolved, public opinion must be controlled first. If you cause me trouble, I will cause you trouble. I come from a medical background; I know exactly where your weaknesses and soft spots are."

The Director of Medical Affairs stared blankly at Ji Xiang.

Weaknesses, soft spots—these negative terms sounded so simple yet sharp when spoken from Ji Xiang's mouth.

Fortresses are always breached from within.

Ordinary Patient and Family Member often fail to grasp the main point, giving people the impression of being unreasonable.

But in reality?

The Director of Medical Affairs knew well that this person could not be offended.

"Director Wei, 5 people have already posted the same video. The video share count is already in the dozens, and it will likely break a hundred soon," Ji Xiang smiled slightly. "A single spark can start a prairie fire, right? I firmly believe your hospital can find the Imperial Capital headquarters of the short video website and block all negative news."

"But, doing so comes at a high cost. It's just a small matter of a refund; is it worth it?"

"And I believe your hospital, from top to bottom, shouldn't have that kind of power."

"If someone can get it done, it would be the relevant departments in the city. When that time comes, the anger from that side will be borne entirely by your hospital."

"!!!" Countless exclamation marks appeared above the head of the Director of Medical Affairs.

The Director of Medical Affairs had experienced this series of events once or twice before, but the matters were never this big, and the Patient and Family Member were always acting unconsciously.

Now, facing a young man who held his soft spot, the Director of Medical Affairs was speechless.

"The key is, at the end of the video, I mentioned I would report this under my real name," Ji Xiang said earnestly. "Even if the people with the ability to do this have nothing to do with the medical sector, would they be willing to wade into these muddy waters?"

After Ji Xiang finished speaking, he turned and walked away. Just before stepping out of the office door, he raised his arm. "24 hours. I can delete the video, and the matter will still be within a controllable range. After 24 hours, I will go to the Provincial Hospital to report this under my real name. What happens then, even I don't know."

"You..."

"By the way, I don't have a workplace. Once I step out of this door, I'll tell my mother to come and process the refund tomorrow. If it succeeds, everything is dropped. If it doesn't... I'll call my mother, then turn off my phone, change my SIM card and number, and head to the Provincial Hospital."

"Although it's troublesome, I can guarantee you won't be able to find me for 24 hours, at least not with the hospital's power."

"If it isn't done, tomorrow at 4 PM, I will report it under my real name."

Having said that, Ji Xiang left the office of the Director of Medical Affairs, leaving the dumbfounded little chubby man in a state of disarray.

Soon, the Director of Medical Affairs received an angry call from the Dean; the city's public opinion monitoring department had found the Central Hospital and ordered them to rectify the situation.

Ji Xiang didn't know exactly what happened, but when he turned his phone on after 24 hours, he received a string of missed call notifications.

Calling back, the voice of the Director of Medical Affairs came through hurriedly.

"Young man, the matter is resolved."

The tone of his voice didn't seem unhappy, nor was there any excitement; he was simply stating a fact.

"Director Wei, I'm sorry about that."

"Not at all. Are you in the Provincial Hospital?"

"No, I'm near the hospital," Ji Xiang laughed.

"I knew you were intimidating me," the Director of Medical Affairs was in a great mood now. "Come out and have a meal; my treat."

"Okay."

As promised, he arrived at a small shop.

Ji Xiang paused after seeing the storefront.

Peiyang Barbecue?

The same as the Peiyang Barbecue at the entrance of the Second Affiliated Hospital?

Ji Xiang scratched his head. He knew this was a setting of the Intelligent System. Could it be that there was a similar shop near the hospital where Zhou Jiaoshou and Lang Ge were?

Strange.

The Director of Medical Affairs arrived as promised. With a look of relief on his face, he ducked into the private room and said impatiently, "Young man, I will personally supervise tomorrow morning. You go and check your medical insurance account."

"Smoothly?" Ji Xiang asked with a smile.

"Smoothly," the Director of Medical Affairs said. "The city attaches great importance to public opinion. Experts brought in from the Provincial Hospital worked overnight to modify the Intelligent System."

As he spoke, the Director of Medical Affairs shook his head. "Young man, it really wasn't that we didn't want to do it. If it weren't for breaking the rules, I would rather have paid you out of my own pocket."

"I've heard that when accountants audit accounts, even if they are off by one cent, they have to redo the accounts from the beginning," Ji Xiang said. "If you gave me money privately, it would indeed break the rules."

"It's good that you understand. It really was an issue with the Intelligent System, but to tell you the truth..."

As the Director of Medical Affairs spoke, he looked at Ji Xiang's phone.

Ji Xiang turned off his phone and looked at the Director of Medical Affairs with a smile.

"Many functional departments in the hospital don't know how to do their jobs. Damn it, a lot of people are just drifting through their days; they don't know a damn thing!"

"Right, not just the hospital, it's the same everywhere. I remember one year, before a big-budget production from Tencent's film company was about to be released, the internal leadership watched it once and felt it would definitely flop, so they swapped it with another company's drama and traded half the equity returns."

"I know about that. I really don't know what those so-called experts are thinking," the Director of Medical Affairs laughed heartily, completely devoid of yesterday's depressed expression.

"In the end, that Tencent drama exploded in popularity, and everyone was very embarrassed. It's not that laymen are leading experts; many things are just inexplicable, left to fate," Ji Xiang laughed.

"Sigh, if it weren't for such great pressure and such great public opinion, who knows how long the refund matter would have dragged on."

But at this point, the Director of Medical Affairs looked up and stared at Ji Xiang. "Young man, you should do less of this kind of thing in the future."

After finishing, he said earnestly, "I'm speaking from the heart. You don't know..."

The remaining thousands of words were left unsaid.

"I understand. It's just that I was pushed to the edge," Ji Xiang spread his hands.

"We've already agreed to transfer cash to you. It's just a bit troublesome; if we compensate you according to a Medical Dispute, you'll even have a profit."

Ji Xiang thought to himself, that's not what I wanted either.

Moreover, that little bit of profit was not even worth mentioning compared to the wasted time.

"In short, it's over," the Director of Medical Affairs said. "By the way, what department are you a doctor in? I see you have logic in how you do things; you don't seem like those cowardly doctors who are afraid to burn their bridges. In the future—I mean in the future—if you ever find yourself temporarily out of a job, you can come to me."

Ji Xiang had not expected the Director of Medical Affairs to start trying to recruit him.

"No, thank you."

"I knew it. You must be resigning to go to the Imperial Capital; otherwise, how would you know so much?" The Director of Medical Affairs felt a slight regret, but he did not try to keep Ji Xiang.

The two chatted and laughed; with the conflict gone, they were naturally harmonious.

The Director of Medical Affairs drank a few glasses of wine and, intentionally or unintentionally, told Ji Xiang many things, including gossip about the SF Professional.

Ji Xiang knew he was secretly warning him, and that the inspection team was not omnipotent; it was just that it is better to avoid trouble than to invite it.

But it didn't matter; as long as the matter could be resolved, that was fine.

When the Director of Medical Affairs was about to leave, he gave Ji Xiang his phone number and said that if he ever fell on hard times, he should come find him.

This matter ended there.

The next day, after the refund was transferred back to the medical insurance account, a white light flashed before Ji Xiang's eyes, and he returned to the System Operating Room.

"Teacher, I have a question," Ji Xiang said impatiently as soon as he returned.

"Speak."

"What was the purpose of this Empathy? I thought I was going to experience the world of a Patient with abdominal pain," Ji Xiang asked, puzzled.

The System NPC smiled slightly, "People make mistakes, but machines and programs do, too."

"!!!" Ji Xiang was stunned.

He immediately thought of that hospital of the future.

The diagnosis and treatment process was simple and clear, and everything went very smoothly; at the time, he only felt it was advanced.

But once the power went out, it would have an irreversible impact on that hospital. And with the situation he encountered this time, it seemed that hospitals of the future would have to face more similar situations.

"There will always be problems, and they are still being slowly resolved," the System NPC said. "Actually, some things are just a little bit of my own worry, but the way those above do things is really..."

Those above?

Ji Xiang was stunned again.

"Teacher, what happens if the Intelligent AI System develops self-awareness?" Ji Xiang asked a question that seemed unrelated.

He felt that this was exactly what the System NPC was talking about.

A small bug could leave an entire hospital from top to bottom looking miserable; what if the AI had self-awareness?

There are quite a few similar movies.

From Kubrick's *2001: A Space Odyssey* to *The Terminator*, countless film and television works have expressed this kind of concern.

"Heh, they started mixing in sand from the very beginning," the System NPC said casually.

"Mixing in sand?"

The System NPC did not explain to Ji Xiang exactly how to mix sand into artificial intelligence.

"Besides some of my worries about the future, there is also the power of the Medical Affairs Department and the importance of administrative departments. If it were me back in the day, I would have slammed the refund form right onto the faces of the Information Center director and the Insurance Department director; if they didn't process it, they would have to bear the consequences."

Ji Xiang raised an eyebrow; he knew the System NPC could do that, but he couldn't. But just thinking about it was enough to make his heart yearn for it.

"Blending with the light and dust is important; you will gradually understand," the System NPC said indifferently.

While Ji Xiang was deep in thought, the System NPC waved a hand, and Ji Xiang returned to the Emergency Department.

(End of chapter)