Chapter 157

Fang Ziye said, "Then Director Zhang, I'll head out first. I still have to go to the operating room later."

"As for the lab, I'll check it out after my afternoon surgeries end and during non-surgical time, then go exchange pointers with my classmates." Fang Ziye was very modest.

To tell the truth, Zhang Mingcan nearly gave Fang Ziye a reason to break his composure; he came within a hair's breadth of being exploited by him.

Had he been just a little less rational, with Zhang Mingcan having money here and he himself having capability, Fang Ziye would have very much wanted to find out who that Teacher was, what kind of research project he was doing, and then directly rush his project, making him unable to complete it, stirring up a whole mess of trouble for no reason.

If you secure a General Project or Youth Fund but cannot complete it, then your trouble is truly huge — not just for your project group, but for your department, and even the hospital as well.

However, project completion only has targets; to smash every single target, unless you can block all the pathways in his research direction before he publishes his papers, leaving them with nothing left to do.

The difficulty is extremely high.

Moreover, Fang Ziye isn't that irrational either; everything is just Zhang Mingcan's one-sided account.

Besides, how Master and Teacher get along — that depends on Master's wishes; why would he go meddle in the relationship between elders?

Only a fool would do something like that; better to honestly focus on his own clinical work, strengthen the foundation and paper depth of his own and his teacher's project group — that is the right way.

"Right, right, right, the lab matter isn't urgent."

"Oh, right, there's one more thing. Ziye, yesterday I heard Zhong Xue Gao from our department say your manual reduction skill is very strong, even stronger than Xue Tao."

"How about this: right now there are too many fracture patients in the department. If you have time, come help out — handle a batch of the relatively simple fractures that can be manually reduced."

"Right in the department or the operating room, you decide." Zhang Mingcan finally steered the topic to where he wanted it to go, and it was closely tied to clinical work.

The department's patient volume is high — not just Director Wu Guo Nan's group, but all groups.

Generally, all routine cases suitable for manual reduction have already been reduced. But Wu Guo Nan held the innate advantage; he invited Huang Haitao, clearing out over a dozen patients, so now his group only has twenty-two patients left.

Originally, Director Wu Guo Nan's group had the highest patient volume, but the upside is there are no severe cases — all severe cases went to Zhang Mingcan and Old Director Hong Du.

On this point, Fang Ziye still gives a thumbs-up to Zhang Mingcan's task allocation.

Not absolute fairness, but at least everyone is convinced in heart and mouth.

Our group's patient count dropped by two or three, but we have severe cases.

"Director Zhang, this might not be doable. The reason I could do some manual reductions yesterday was naturally due to Director Huang's guidance. Without anyone guiding me, then...?" Fang Ziye hurriedly explained.

Zhang Mingcan laughed again at this point, pointed toward Fang Ziye, and said, "You wouldn't know this, but in Minzu University Hospital, there's a fierce talent about your age, maybe two or three years older, with very outstanding aptitude."

"He counts as Director Huang Haitao's fellow trainee — he is Old Chinese Doctor Chen's closed-door star disciple. Right now, he's a PhD student in Tongji Hospital's Orthopedics, just on a fixed-point exchange at Minzu University Hospital, similar to your format, and it's long-term."

"I have a very good relationship with him; I can invite him over to give you thorough, all-around guidance."

"Huh?" Fang Ziye's heart tightened, his brow flickered.

"His surname is Wu, name Wu Xuanqi. You two can get in good contact." Zhang Mingcan told Fang Ziye the other's name.

Hearing this, Fang Ziye immediately nodded properly and agreed.

But in his mind he was thinking: if his operation is even better than Huang Haitao's, then that's at least Level 4 Manual Reduction Technique, right?

A Level 4 Manual Reduction Technique around thirty years old — that counts as a pretty impressive genius-level player; I estimate he's at least on the same tier as Song Yi.

Huazhong University of Science and Technology has a good relationship with Minzu University Hospital — this is something Fang Ziye, as an Enshi person, knows.

Just like Enshi Central Hospital has a good relationship with Han City University.

……

Fang Ziye returned to the ward round team, still following in a proper, by-the-book manner.

However, today's ward round, Fang Ziye spoke a few more sentences, but nothing particularly deep.

Mainly to avoid wasting surgery time.

After the round, the medical orders needing correction weren't many, but all were handed to Huang Yunxiao.

Fang Ziye, Xue Tao, and Wang Zhongxing — the three of them were directly brought into the operating room by Wu Guo Nan.

This was Fang Ziye's first time entering the operating room, so Wu Guo Nan personally brought him, telling the staff at the doorway, "This is our Orthopedics' Doctor Fang. If he forgets his name badge later, remember to let him in."

The person handing out masks and medical caps was an uncle, about fifty-something, who smiled shyly: "No problem, Director Zhang, rest assured. Doctor Fang, I'll remember. Hehehe."

Wu Guo Nan gave a thumbs-up and explained to Fang Ziye: "Ziye, this is Long Ge, our operating room's veteran. He has a photographic memory — all our hospital's surgeons and nurses, he remembers clearly, and next time he can still call out their names."

"Don't believe me? You can test him."

Fang Ziye's Uncle Long picked out a suitable set of clothes for Fang Ziye, then nodded at him: "Hello, Doctor Fang."

"Hello, hello." Fang Ziye, stepping in blue shoe covers, walked deeper inside.

He still had something he wanted to ask Director Wu for advice on.

A few minutes later, inside the changing room, Fang Ziye asked: "Director Wu, the place you did your advanced training before — was it the Provincial People's Hospital, or Zhongnan, or Tongji and Xiehe?"

Wu Guo Nan was currently putting on his scrub pants; he stuck out his buttocks, pulled up his waistband, turned his head: "Most of our hospital's doctors trained at Zhongnan, me too. Back when I trained, the group I chose was Professor Dong Yaohui's."

"At that time, Professor Deng Yong had just started leading a group; the ward director was also Professor Dong."

"You're not going to go tattle to your Master, are you?" Wu Guo Nan laughed.

Wu Guo Nan's physique was great; the edema around his eyes, after a few days' rest, had vanished completely — just from staying up late.

Bearing crisp and capable.

Fang Ziye shook his head: "How could that be? I was just curious. For instance, when Tao Ge did his advanced training, my Master had already stepped down as Chief Resident — he didn't encounter a single one."

"But I've had contact with many advanced-training Big Brothers from prefecture-level city hospitals like Xian City, Yi City, and so on."

"This isn't meeting someone from the hometown, is it." Fang Ziye casually found a reason and brushed it off.

Xue Tao's expression flickered at this moment.

Xue Tao — during his advanced training, Yuan Weihong happened to be in his Chief Resident period.

After hesitating a moment, Xue Tao said: "Director Wu, Little Fang's Master's degree was under Yuan Weihong's student. He only entered Professor Deng Yong's group for his PhD."

Xue Tao's tone seemed to be reminding Wu Guo Nan of something.

"Oh!" Wu Guo Nan suddenly realized.

"Young talent paired with little young talent — very good. During my second advanced training, Yuan Weihong was only in his PhD Year 3, close to graduation." Wu Guo Nan explained.

In prefecture-level city hospitals, title promotion might require two or three advanced trainings — not an exaggeration.

When Wu Guo Nan first did his advanced study, Yuan Weihong wasn't even in the department yet. He didn't mention it.

Hearing both of them bring up their own masters, and that the span happened to be right around the master's doctoral period, Fang Ziye asked: "Was my master particularly formidable back then?"

"I think my master is pretty formidable. But my master won't tell me."

Xue Tao immediately perked up at this.

"Wei Ge is amazing. Being able to follow Wei Ge is your good fortune, little Fang."

Wu Guo Nan also nodded: "I'm not especially close with Yuan Weihong, but I know him. Professionally and clinically, he's top-tier. He was a leading figure back then."

"Many of Professor Dong's doctoral students back then were crushed until they couldn't breathe. Even Professor Deng Yong later became a ward director, but the one retained seems to have been Yuan Weihong."

"Right, exactly." Wu Guo Nan affirmed.

Fang Ziye hurriedly played a winning hand, asking: "Then Director Wu, you should also know about the mix-up incident involving my master, right? Why not fill me in on a few details?"

"I asked Master directly, and he wouldn't say either. But everyone's curious, aren't they."

Fang Ziye cleverly lowered his voice: "I won't tell my master."

A perfect display, the gossipy temperament of Lan Tianluo, vivid and lifelike.

With a fellow trainee, there are also some things to learn. At least the act is very convincing.

Fang Ziye wasn't old. Xue Tao and Wu Guo Nan didn't think too much. They hesitated a moment, felt Fang Ziye already knew the gist, so Wu Guo Nan spoke a few sentences in outline as they walked.

And Wu Guo Nan's account, though not as detailed as Director Zhang Mingcan's, confirmed that Professor Chu Lao had passed away not long before, so there were still some rumors in the department.

Through Wu Guo Nan's supplement, Fang Ziye roughly understood a rough picture.

It was: after Professor Chu Lao left, Fang Ziye originally had two teachers who also worked at Zhongnan Hospital. But later, due to various connections, their titles couldn't advance. So in the second year after his passing, both of them left.

One was an associate chief physician who never made associate professor. The other even had his associate chief physician promotion delayed. The two were quite interesting.

Once they left, they directly packaged all the research group's achievements and took them.

But clearly, at that time, many achievements were made by Yuan Weihong. Yet the two senior brothers used these things as their foundation for development at their new posts.

Where exactly they went, Wu Guo Nan couldn't trace. He only knew that when leaving, both senior brothers urged Yuan Weihong to leave early too.

As the saying goes, when the tree falls, the monkeys scatter.

The master has fallen, why hang around? You're just a foil for others.

The two left in style, but during that time, Yuan Weihong truly suffered. Yuan Weihong originally didn't need to pass through the training room to get retention qualifications. Just publishing papers, he was still crushing it.

Same as Senior Brother Sun Shaoqing, doing experiments would definitely be too late now.

And Yuan Weihong never thought he'd rely on rushing the training room for retention. So his capabilities weren't balanced — strengths were long, weaknesses short.

But later, he ultimately broke through, and that's how the retention happened...

By Fang Ziye's ear, words his master Yuan Weihong had told him long ago resounded —

"Go back and rest early. Don't stay in the training room too long."

"Improvement in clinical operation is slow grinding work."

"The hospital's purpose in setting up training rooms is just for convenient learning, not for us to cross over."

"What the professors say is actually pie in the sky. No need to take it too seriously."

Back then, Fang Ziye thought all of this was just said for himself.

Now Fang Ziye can finally appreciate the first three sentences: just for convenient learning, not for us to cross over.

Perhaps, in the end, Yuan Weihong's retention had little to do with breaking through the training room. It lay in Yuan Weihong's own management.

The last sentence, Fang Ziye also felt there was more to it. But for now, he couldn't quite figure it out.

Fang Ziye couldn't help wondering: was Master Yuan Weihong's so-called North Sea One Leaf truly unrestrained arrogance, or was he deliberately feigning madness, pretending to establish a persona for himself?

Regardless, Fang Ziye still maintained silence.

All the calm in this world, still as water, is actually not as simple as it appears on the surface.

Just slowly do well by yourself. Under Master's protection, be someone who goes with the flow. Since there are no waves beating against you, don't go looking for trouble.

Just, because of this one matter, Fang Ziye had zero interest in doing surgery, in earning knowledge points during the surgical process.

Anyway the whole process was: Wu Guo Nan, Xue Tao, and the others — whatever they had Fang Ziye do, he did.

Have Fang Ziye make an incision, he makes an incision.

Need a suture, he does a suture.

Even though Fang Ziye's incision technique and suturing technique were praised all around by Wu Guo Nan and the rest, Fang Ziye still found it rather dull.

This state persisted until noon.

When Fang Ziye rotated into the surgical meal room to eat, Yuan Weihong called him: "Ziye, you were in surgery earlier, right?"

Master's voice and tone made Fang Ziye feel like basking in a spring breeze.

Like a teacher, like a father — not Fang Ziye's one-sided tone, not him sucking up to Yuan Weihong, but genuine experience and Fang Ziye's understanding of all Yuan Weihong's ways of treating him.

"Master, are you resting? Did Director Zhang call you?" Fang Ziye perked up again, just his voice carried a touch of heartache.

"Yep! ~ This lock-mouth, really says everything."

"Director Zhang's words, don't take them to heart. Every generation has its own friendships."

"Anyway, be a bit muddle-headed. The past is past. Your Teacher Chu's lineage has so few people. Those who have friendship with your teacher me, just those few."

"Alright, Master's matters involve human relations. No need for you to worry. Do your own things well. Promise less, speak less, do more." Yuan Weihong was probably lying in the study, telling Fang Ziye.

Because Fang Ziye could still hear Yuan Weihong's slightly lazy page-turning sounds.

"Mm, okay, Master."

"I didn't even actively ask you. Just felt... I don't know how to bring these things up. Just do well by ourselves."

"Oh, right, Master. Yesterday Jie Han told me our face standard grant might not get funded?" Fang Ziye asked again.

"Most likely won't. After all, your teacher's research group... their research between osteosarcoma and hk2 is more in-depth and more promising than ours."

"But it doesn't matter, our group has money, just continue doing it."

"It's a deal, don't affect my mood or anything like that."

"You haven't reached the kind of pressure your teacher is under yet."

"Just three points: first, learn the specialty; second, accumulate academics. Third, broaden your horizons. Everything else, don't worry about it at all." Yuan Weihong was calm and collected.

But Fang Ziye knew that Yuan Weihong's calm and collected demeanor was definitely feigned.

But it's nothing, aren't they just some previous research project achievements? Just do them again.

The academic world is vast as the sea; any random direction still has plenty to do. Even the molecular biology of hk2 in giant cell tumor of bone still has too many directions to delve into, impossible to exhaust in a lifetime.

Fang Ziye wasn't afraid either: "Mm, okay Master, I'm eating right now, after I finish eating I have to go to surgery."

"I even signed a military order at Old Professor Li's place. If there's no success by the end, a scolding is probably inevitable, but I'll try my best to minimize the scolding."

"You're overthinking it. How could Old Professor Li really set such a high standard for you? As long as you can advance our Trauma Surgery's key basic operations another step, that would be excellent."

"Future matters, learn slowly. You might not learn anything in Enshi."

Fang Ziye heard this, then asked again: "Not necessarily, Master."

"Our Enshi Central Hospital has a Doctor Shen from the Provincial People's Hospital who came down for pairing assistance. He's also an attending physician. Do you know him?"

"Also at Minzu University Hospital, there's a Trauma Surgery PhD from Tongji Hospital, seems to be called Wu Xuanqi. Heard his manual reduction technique is very good. Director Zhang even called him over to give me some guidance."

"Shen Tao?"

"Wow, so many 'Tao's in your department?" Yuan Weihong immediately clicked his tongue in wonder.

Fang Ziye knew Yuan Weihong probably still remembered Deputy Chief Physician Xue Tao, so hearing there was also a Shen Tao at the Provincial People's Hospital here made him even more surprised.

Fang Ziye joked: "Master, the day before yesterday Deputy Chief Physician Huang Haitao also came!"

The character 'Tao', used in names, was too common among Fang Ziye's older brothers over the past ten years, not much different from the character 'Hui'.

"Don't make that joke, it's not suitable for you."

"Shen Tao scolds people. This person has a very explosive temper."

"As for that PhD you mentioned, I've heard of him. He's the beloved disciple of Tongji Hospital's Director. Before, for various reasons, seems he did rural rotation for a year, then came back to continue his PhD."

"His capability is very strong. I have a bit of an impression of him. But you'd best have little contact with this person, because his connections are a bit complex. Try not to cross him."

"That Doctor Chen who has a very deep relationship with him, his connections are chaotic to the point of being untouchable. Respect from a distance. Must not fail to respect."

"Of course, learning things is learnable. Don't get close. Understand?" Yuan Weihong gave Fang Ziye a safety net.

"Okay, I understand, Master." Fang Ziye was obedient to a fault.

ps: This image is sourced from the Medical Imaging Club. If any readers are interested, you can go there to see more popular science.

(Chapter End)