Chapter 3108: 2904 Work Behind the Scenes

"Xiao Zheng, as a technical backbone, you should still promote it." Director Yan understood Zheng Ren's meaning, but he still needed to be polite, so he chose his words carefully.

"Director, I really can't find the words." Zheng Ren scratched his head, laughing, "I just have this one request, and I hope you can understand."

Understanding…… Zheng Lao Ban actually used such a word to describe it.

"Alright." Director Yan agreed to Zheng Ren's request with reluctance, seeming somewhat displeased, but everyone knew his inner delight.

Director Yan gave Zheng Ren a meaningful glance, then turned and left with his hands behind his back.

Ye Qingqiu smiled slightly, "Zheng Lao Ban, see you tomorrow."

"Mm." Zheng Ren smiled, seeing everyone off.

Director Kong followed behind with a smile, but didn't leave; after seeing everyone off, he said softly, "Zheng Lao Ban, you truly have a child's heart."

"Director, look what you're saying." Zheng Ren laughed, "I just don't want to accept interviews."

"Are you preparing to practice the operation again, or go home?"

Zheng Ren thought: he could endure it, but Zhou Chun Yong and the others from the Hepatobiliary Department in Di Du couldn't. Tomorrow there's still a remote surgery livestream, so resting early would be good.

"I'll go home, wash up, and sleep." Zheng Ren said with a smile.

"Mm, there's something I've always wanted to tell you; you've been swamped lately and I never found the time." Director Kong walked and said, "Zheng Lao Ban, it's that old saying: take things slow."

This is the 'slow' Director Kong often mentions; Zheng Ren vaguely understood the meaning. Affairs are complicated, countless details need to be experienced, attended to, and resolved. Moving too easily leads to mishaps—that's what Director Kong meant.

"This year can be said to be a bountiful harvest." Director Kong walked and said softly, "You and your medical team together performed 2,642 surgeries; that number is shocking. Even now I can't fathom how you managed to do so many."

So many? Zheng Ren had never carefully calculated the number.

"Saying it's a year, but it's actually less than that. An average team-leading professor can complete over a thousand surgeries a year; when I was young, I also had a competitive spirit, comparing whose surgery count was higher. But over a year, at most it's 1,200 surgeries."

"Facing life and death every day, one can only detach from it to face things indifferently and calmly, even needing to be callous."

Zheng Ren froze for a moment; Su Yun also furrowed her brow.

"Director, a few days ago Su Yun drew lots to go to Tianhai for a medical appraisal; Ye Chu explained the matter, and I'm a bit confused." Zheng Ren sighed.

Afterward, Su Yun recounted the incident to Director Kong.

Director Kong smiled slightly and said, "Yes, that's exactly what I wanted to say—moving too fast."

Arriving at Director Kong's office, he didn't change clothes, but sat in the chair behind his desk, fingers interlaced, thumbs rotating.

"Director, do you think the boss has become swollen with pride?" Su Yun laughed.

"Swollen? No. I've also pondered this; based on my observation of your medical team over a year… let's just say a year, specifically nearly ten months; if I tried to be more precise, I couldn't figure it out."

"No mistakes in surgeries within a year—that's something I can't comprehend." Director Kong said solemnly.

"There are plenty of people nationwide who perform over a thousand surgeries a year. In previous years, when operating room management wasn't strict, there were doctors who did 7,000 thyroid surgeries a year. But with such a volume and yet no mistakes at all, that's unprecedented."

"Moreover, what you do isn't mere repetitive work; it includes 22 trips to outside hospitals to rescue cases, the tips surgeries you and your medical team performed, and the 212 external surgeries done in our institute—all of them successful."

Saying this, Director Kong pulled out a thick stack of A4 paper.

"Old buddy, I'm not used to reading documents on a computer; I've organized your surgeries from the past year and had someone do follow‑ups." Director Kong put on his glasses and examined each sheet of A4 paper—names, illnesses, treatments, postoperative visits.

Zheng Ren was speechless—Director Kong had actually done all this work behind his back!

Generally, postoperative follow‑ups must be done, but Zheng Ren had no time, so he dumped them all on Chang Yue to handle.

From Chang Yue's side, no feedback was the best feedback for Zheng Ren.

"I don't know whether you're gifted or extraordinarily lucky, but all the patients' treatment results astonish me." Director Kong said, "Early patients occasionally had minor symptoms, but since September this year, postoperative patients have recovered exceptionally well."

"From the data and files, one can see you're constantly pushing yourself further each day. This, I can't quite grasp. Logically, at first you were the one performing, later mostly Liu Zewei and Gao Shaojie took the stage while you watched from below; yet postoperative outcomes were better, your surgeries were good, and your teaching was good—truly eye‑opening."

Zheng Ren gazed at Director Kong, wondering what the old man would finally say.

Director Kong, however, didn't continue speaking; instead, he lightly stroked the documents with his fingers and put them back into the file folder.

The kraft‑paper file folder, something from many years ago, is now rarely seen.

"What I want to say is, as doctors, if you cure a thousand patients, you might receive gratitude and thanks. All these banners in my room are the fruit of many years of work."

Saying this, Director Kong's gaze swept over the dense array of banners in the room, then the corners of his mouth turned up: "You say they're useful?"

"They're utterly useless."

"Over these years I've seen too much. Medical‑worker incidents increase each year, conflicts grow sharper, and the whole group has become a scapegoat."

"Director, that mindset isn't positive at all." Su Yun said with a laugh.

"Know the male, keep the female." Director Kong said calmly.

That one sentence put Su Yun down to the nether realms.

"Let me give an example: Professor Gao Shaojie is expected to become deputy director of the Hepatobiliary Intervention Department in Di Du in a couple of years. Do you know what the previous deputy directors went on to do?" Director Kong asked.

"Director Zhou said it was due to poor health, and he was persuaded to leave." Zheng Ren said.

"No." Director Kong said, "Director Cao is younger than me, I'm still shining in clinical practice—how could he suddenly be unwell? Two years ago, Director Cao had a complication during surgery."

"Hepatobiliary cancer intervention?"

"Mm, a 14 cm tumor; he embolized it twice and it was completely occluded."

Zheng Ren frowned; such a large liver tumor, in his view, would require at least five or six procedures to fully occlude. This is still a relatively lucky case—normally, as embolization proceeds, abnormal vascular proliferation can restore the tumor's blood supply.

Zheng Ren believed the best treatment for such a massive tumor is to embolize twice, inject iodized oil into it, and then proceed with surgical therapy.

Embolizing twice would occlude all the tumor's feeding vessels—anything less would be asking for trouble.