Chapter 113: Are You Cheating? (Asking for Subscriptions)

Fang Ziye nodded first, then entered the laboratory with Luo Tingzhu and carried out the subsequent steps of the lactic acid quantitative assay.

The standard curve, in principle, only needs to be produced once if the same cell line and the same treatment model are used.

During the waiting period for the reagent reaction, Luo Tingzhu lay prone at her computer, typing away cat-paw style as she revised a paper — a bioinformatics analysis she had written in her spare time recently.

It was made possible by Lan Tianluo taking her to run a small dataset after his exams ended.

Luo Tingzhu was operating on the principle that she could skip writing bioinformatics analyses, but she absolutely had to know how to write them, and was now slowly revising one.

Fang Ziye, for the time being, had not leaned in that direction, because there were many basic experiments he could do, and the group had a bioinformatics ace among the junior trainees, so he did not need to rush; he planned to fill in those gaps only after finishing all the cell experiments he could do.

Taking advantage of the gap, Fang Ziye examined his panel, which he had not scrutinized closely in a long time —

【Medical Basic Theory: Surgery Level 2 25/50, Orthopedics Level 2 39/50, Trauma Surgery Level 2 48/50, Hand Surgery Level 2 41/50, Joint Surgery Level 2 35/50, Sports Medicine Level 1 15/20...】

In Medical Basic Theory, there had been some progress compared to when he first obtained the panel, thanks to Fang Ziye reading literature and accumulating corresponding theoretical knowledge.

But this bit of understanding now appeared somewhat insufficient compared to other theoretical aspects —

Theoretical growth was far too slow.

Fang Ziye reckoned his reading time was not little, was it? Basically, aside from experiments, the training room, and surgeries, most of his time was spent reading papers; why read papers? Because apart from the highly specialized Campbell's Operative Orthopaedics, he had already read Practical Orthopaedics cover to cover.

That was a book of over four thousand pages, certainly not that detailed. But at least he had read through it.

And if he were to read the original Campbell textbook, it would take at least a year or more.

It was only Level 2, still needed to keep improving.

At least reach Level 3 to be adequate.

Of course, compared to normal progress, it was actually not low; after all, the doctoral stage is roughly Level 3, and Fang Ziye had not yet focused heavily on this aspect.

The other doctoral senior brothers were not idle with nothing to do either; they were surely reading too, and while he improved, they were also improving.

【Specialty Basic Theory: Trauma Surgery Postoperative Medication Experience Level 3 15/500, Infection-related Medication Experience Level 2 47/50, Perioperative Diagnosis and Treatment Experience Level 2 37/50...】

Specialty Basic Theory differs from Medical Basic Theory; Medical Basic Theory mainly covers diagnosis, pathology, physiology, and clinical symptoms.

Specialty Basic Theory focuses on medication, requiring the integration of basic theory, pharmacology, and specialty theory to achieve a relatively broad understanding.

And the therapeutic drugs used for diseases go far beyond the mere "odds and ends" filled in undergraduate or residency textbooks.

This point need not be rushed; unless encountering an especially difficult patient unsolvable by surgery, purely grinding medication usage and deliberating perioperative patient safety issues were not yet content Fang Ziye needed to consider.

This is content that chief residents and attending physicians need to pay high attention to.

The Medical Basic Operational Skills further down appeared rather lavish.

【Medical Basic Operational Skills: Suturing Level 4 2/5000, Incision Level 3 134/500, Debridement Level 3 99/500, Hemostasis Level 3 123/500, X-ray Reading Level 3 1/500, CT Reading Level 3 0/500, Puncture Level 1 8/20, Knot Tying Level 3 4/500, Medical Basic Physical Examination Level 2 44/50, Surgical Routine Instrument Operation Experience Level 2 13/50, Medical Routine Examination Reading Experience Level 2 39/50】

Hey, the basic operational skills were too unbalanced; Fang Ziye couldn't stand Level 1 skills still sitting there, so he directly raised Puncture Technique to Level 2, consuming 12 Knowledge Points.

Fang Ziye's Knowledge Points instantly dropped to only 71, truly stretched thin.

Knowledge Points were not enough, far from enough!

【Medical Specialty Basic Skills: Manual Reduction Level 3 8/500, Vascular Suturing Level 3 45/500, Nerve Suturing Level 1 9/20, Limb Simple Fracture Open Reduction Internal Fixation Level 1 3/20, Tendon Suturing Level 1 9/20...】

After Suturing rose to Level 4, it would provide some benefit to Vascular Suturing and Tendon Suturing, but obviously could not give these medical specialty skills a large boost.

This kind of specialized suturing and basic suturing have a certain degree of technical barrier between them.

Perhaps skill levels and proficiency are also benchmarked against especially professional top-tier doctors.

For example, suturing — every medical student knows a bit, but hand surgery vascular anastomosis — never mind medical students, even a vascular surgeon on stage, benchmarked against hand surgery's 99% patency rate, could only stare blankly.

Further down, there were Specialty Routine Skills, Specialty Advanced Skills, Specialty Frontier Skills.

【Specialty Skills: Bone Harvesting and Grafting (Impaction Grafting) Level 1 1/20...】

【Specialty Advanced Skills...】

【Specialty Frontier Skills: Osteotomy Correction...】

【Auxiliary Skills: Medical Basic Cell Experiment Technique Level 3 29/500, Medical Animal Experiment Technique Level 3 0/500】

Mm, the Osteotomy Correction that Professor Li Guohua mentioned was at this position.

Fang Ziye roughly made a comparison for this classification: Medical Basic Operational Skills and Specialty Basic Operational Skills probably correspond to Level 1 surgeries, Specialty Skills correspond to Level 2 surgeries, Specialty Advanced Skills correspond to Level 3-4 surgeries, and Specialty Frontier Skills correspond to new techniques.

This is a very large pie, difficult to eat, but once it enters the mouth, that flavor is not something ordinary people can understand.

But it was still far from Fang Ziye's time to start learning surgery; a medical student's early stage is about building foundations, because superiors say basic operational improvement is the slowest; once truly working and entering a specialty, with massive operation opportunities feeding in, any doctor with a bit of talent can slowly grow in three to five years.

Like Yuan Weihong — he belongs to the batch that has already slowly grown and begun to stand out.

No need to rush.

Counting generously, it had only been half a year since he obtained the panel.

In just half a year, his specialty skills had reaped a harvest — not only catching up to a surgically gifted doctor like Luo Tingzhu, but also leaving his own batch, the above-average-talent Xiong Jinhuan and Li Yuanpei, far behind.

This was not even him going full firepower yet; once he truly contacts clinical work, with massive treatment-derived Knowledge Points feeding in, Fang Ziye truly feels the future is promising.

Thinking here, Fang Ziye couldn't help but think of two people.

Professor Liu Huanglong of Huazhong University of Science and Technology Affiliated Union Hospital, thirty-six years old, chief physician, professor, researcher — what kind of promotion speed is this?

Heard that this Teacher Liu Huanglong, less than two years older than his own teacher, after promotion to attending physician, exceptionally promoted to deputy chief physician and associate professor, then exceptionally promoted again to chief physician and professor.

Twenty-nine, fresh out of graduation became a master's supervisor; thirty-four, promoted to researcher rank, same year became a doctoral supervisor — fierce.

The other person, naturally, is the absolute giant of Eastern Han hepatobiliary surgery, the revered elder known as the Father of Hepatobiliary Surgery, who only graduated undergraduate at twenty-seven, and by thirty-seven had already stood at the world-class peak...

Fang Ziye himself is only twenty-seven, just a little bit past.

What is there to be anxious about?

Speaking of which, his birthday was the eighteenth of last month, December 18th, but at that time he was only concerned with the paper's blind review — who could spare a thought for what a birthday was?

Take it slow.

Use the remaining Knowledge Points to slowly add points to Debridement, raise it to around 110-120, then he can completely graduate from the Medical Basic Skills stage during his doctorate and consider tackling Orthopedics Specialty Basic Skills.

After calculating a bit, Fang Ziye continued writing the current experimental plan.

Naturally, what Fang Ziye wrote was a plan only he could understand; this thing had better not be fully revealed to anyone besides Yuan Weihong, even his own junior trainees — best to explain clearly only after things are done.

He had only written one-third when Luo Tingzhu's alarm clock started ringing.

However, just as Luo Tingzhu was about to call Fang Ziye, Fang Ziye's call came in.

Hearing this, Luo Tingzhu stopped her motion of standing up to call Fang Ziye, turned off the alarm clock, made a remote gesture to Fang Ziye, and began putting her lab gloves back on.

These gloves are actually uncomfortable to wear; no matter the season, the lab temperature is never too low, and wearing gloves makes one sweat easily, so they are usually taken off when not operating.

Fang Ziye answered and waved at Luo Tingzhu: "Mom, have you eaten dinner?"

"I have. Can you come home for the New Year this year? It's already Lunar December 19th."

Fang Ziye had not spent the New Year at home for two years; it wasn't that he didn't go back during the holiday, but he usually only returned around the third or fourth day of the first lunar month.

No way around it; someone has to be on duty during the New Year.

And whether it's the twenty-ninth, thirtieth, or the first, whichever day you're on duty, you can't go back.

The twenty-ninth you can't grab a ticket; New Year's Eve has little meaning — even if you rush back you only arrive on the afternoon of the first; if you're on duty on the first, the year is already over.

Although reunion is the New Year, parents still hope you can return at that special time point for reunion.

"Mom, this still isn't certain; we'll have to see the duty roster then; I estimate it'll be decided by lottery." Fang Ziye replied.

By rights, he is currently a Master's third-year student; the previous two years he was on duty during the New Year period; this year Jin Hongzhou would at least show a bit more consideration, but uncertain is uncertain — if it truly falls to him, Fang Ziye still cannot skip his shift.

"I don't know!"

"Oh, right, today your aunt and uncle came to the house; I told them you defended your thesis; they don't understand what a defense means, so I said you graduated — is that the meaning?" Mom's mood was obviously very good, with a look of relief that she was about to see her child succeed.

"More or less; once the defense is done, you can basically get the graduation certificate and degree certificate."

"What dishes did you and Dad eat tonight?" Fang Ziye didn't want to end the call so quickly, so he asked back and walked out of the laboratory.

Fang Ziye misses home too; it's only natural that his family misses him.

It's just that, coming from an ordinary background, if he wants to reunite with his family, he can only settle in the county or town and stay with his parents; but if he wants to venture out and strive, he must leave his hometown behind.

Just staying in Ba County, making a decent living above the subsistence line is definitely no problem, but once he goes back, so much of the world's prosperity and splendor would have nothing to do with him.

Just being a doctor in a small town or county, there's actually no need to be this competitive like now.

The call lasted about twenty minutes.

Only then did Fang Ziye say: "Mhm, everything's fine on my end; the money Dad sent before was enough, no need to send more."

"Do you and Dad still have money to use?"

The family runs a small business; the annual income is just that, not much, and liquidity isn't high; every year they have to supply him a fixed amount on schedule; Fang Ziye truly fears they might sometimes fail to make ends meet.

"Don't worry about this; you don't need to worry about family matters; I'll have your dad send you another thousand yuan; eat better, buy a set of clothes."

"Just wear something warm; no need to chase brands; wear what's comfortable, clean, tidy..."

Regarding comparison, Fang Ziye only dares to luxuriously wish to compete with others in papers and technique; as for wealth, just Luo Tingzhu alone could probably beat his family into a mess.

Although Luo Tingzhu comes from a divorced family, both her parents are university graduates; any one of them earns more per year than his two parents combined.

The business in the town isn't very big; how much money could it have? A net income of 120,000 would be getting lucky.

This income is more comfortable than going out to work as a migrant worker.

"Mhm, okay, Mom."

"Right, since the New Year is approaching, help me prepare some cured pork legs; when I come back for the New Year, I'll probably need to give two or three away; thanks for the hard work, Dad and Mom." Fang Ziye's mood was very complex.

It's not that Fang Ziye is contentedly being a little parasite.

Rather, on this path of medicine, if you want to climb up without family background or talent, it's truly too hard.

Do those so-called national scholarships, and the many scholarships Luo Tingzhu got, have even a dime's relation to an ordinary student like himself?

In the future he might dare to luxuriously wish, but in the past, special awards like the Special Prize Scholarship — even if he went to the wrong door — would never fall to his head.

Naturally, Fang Ziye is still lucky; his family isn't especially impoverished, so those student aid funds — Fang Ziye submits the materials; if he gets them, it saves the family a bit; if not, forget it.

And medical students, especially Professional Master's students, wanting to earn money through part-time work — basically you can kill that thought.

Hanging up, Fang Ziye hurried to the experimental operation room, just managing to catch the tail end and pocket the 5 o'clock knowledge points.

Knowledge points balance reached seventy-six points.

This is Fang Ziye's experiment, and Luo Tingzhu's experiment.

Fang Ziye continued over to help.

Around twelve o'clock, Fang Ziye collected another 9 knowledge points, making today's knowledge points income break through the hundred mark!

"Finally done, Junior Sister, want to go eat a late-night snack together?" Fang Ziye asked.

Luo Tingzhu thought for a moment, shook her head: "Another time, Senior Brother; tomorrow I have to go to the department early to review discharge medical records, and there are two surgeries in the morning."

Compared to food, Luo Tingzhu wants to sleep five or six hours more.

"Alright, next time then."

"Tomorrow I'll help you prepare the experiment's reagents." Fang Ziye said this.

Now, Fang Ziye is half-detached, only doing research; Luo Tingzhu still has clinical affairs; before, Luo Tingzhu helped a lot; reciprocity is needed.

But unexpectedly, as Luo Tingzhu carried reagents and culture dishes to walk out, she suddenly said: "Senior Brother Fang, are you coming to the skill training room tomorrow?"

Luo Tingzhu's tone was a bit eager to try.

"You want to perform? When?" Fang Ziye immediately asked very sensibly.

"Around two-something in the afternoon; it's not a performance, just hoping Senior Brother Fang you can give some guidance." Luo Tingzhu was slightly modest, a little embarrassed, very proper.

"Good, I'll definitely come then."

"Let's go back together; I'll see you to the dormitory building; it's just a few steps." Fang Ziye carefully put some reagents separately into the refrigerator's 4 degrees and -20 degrees, then turned and yielded his spot.

Now, Luo Tingzhu has already moved her reagents into Yuan Weihong's research group, so everyone's reagents are placed together, to avoid running back and forth or grabbing the wrong ones.

Placing them together, categorizing and organizing, is quite good.

After all, Yuan Weihong arranged for Luo Tingzhu to be merged into Yuan Weihong's small research group, and she brought funding with her.

But unexpectedly, Luo Tingzhu's steps directly stiffened; she turned her head, and through the trembling of her eye corners it was very obvious she might be hesitating while biting the bullet: "Senior Brother, yesterday really no one told you anything?"

Fang Ziye shook his head.

Luo Tingzhu lowered her head slightly, but didn't think much of it...

A day passed quickly.

Half-detached Fang Ziye, in the morning, was in the Department writing and printing the postoperative medical records and discharge summaries for the two beds he managed, and also preparing the discharge medications.

Then he told the Fellow Trainee on duty that if patients came looking, please help him revise the medical records or prescribe a couple extra boxes of medicine.

Discharge patients are nothing more than these two things.

The Fellow Trainee agreed readily.

Then, after Fang Ziye arrived at the Laboratory, in order to be on time to go cheer for Luo Tingzhu's "performance," he slightly accelerated the progress of the morning's experimental operations.

With no one watching, Fang Ziye's operation speed was flying fast, full firepower.

Xue Cao came to the Laboratory a bit late today; he is an Academic PhD Student, same as Senior Brother Yan Zhiming, both First-year Doctoral Students.

But when he entered the Cell Room and saw Fang Ziye's operation, he didn't even care that the examination gloves he was wearing weren't very clean anymore.

He rubbed his eye sockets right there.

"Holy crap, Ziye, did you just open a cheat?"

(Chapter End)