Chapter 277: White Tower

Professor Okochi's words brought a smile to Uesugi Muneyuki's face, and also caused Ishihara Mikoto, standing behind him, to show an expression of envy.

Why didn't I encounter a mentor like this when I was at Osaka University?

"Does the Professor also believe that Professor Zaizen did not misdiagnose?" Having said this much, Uesugi Muneyuki was, conversely, not so concerned anymore.

"Purely from the perspective of medical skill, this was already the optimal plan." Professor Okochi nodded: "But if signs of potential metastasis were discovered before surgery, and the medical records and autopsy report were altered after surgery, then that can only mean Professor Zaizen lacks any self-awareness as a clinical medical scholar; such a thing is intolerable."

"Do you know? Uesugi-kun, the hospital is using your reputation and prestige to stand for the hospital." Professor Okochi said slowly: "Ukai-kun is truly cunning; in this matter, you are wrong if you do it, and wrong if you don't."

Uesugi Muneyuki was silent. He looked at the specimens soaking in formalin in jars all around him, looked at Professor Okochi who had lived in seclusion since arriving at the hospital, spending day after day conducting research in the Forensic Medicine Department—the hospital's foul-smelling bottom layer—and then looked at the large pile of files stacked not far away and the high-precision instruments currently performing tests, and suddenly sighed: "Is this the White Tower?"

"Yes." Professor Okochi nodded, and he said gloomily: "The road of medicine is paved with bones; the White Tower is built from bones. Every doctor is struggling to climb this road, eventually becoming a part of the White Tower."

"If you don't become a part of the White Tower, you will never be able to reach the peak, but as long as you want to keep moving forward, sooner or later you will become a part of the giant tower." Professor Okochi said in a deep voice: "Since you are a part of the tower, you must maintain the tower, otherwise the tower will abandon you without hesitation."

"This matter is the same. The hospital is using you because you are a member of the hospital. If you refuse to maintain the hospital's interests, you will have to leave here, so leave this matter to me."

"Even if this tower is crooked?" Uesugi Muneyuki smiled.

"Didn't I say it? This country is sick." Professor Okochi faintly sensed Uesugi Muneyuki's meaning: "So, have you made up your mind?"

"I am just a Forensic Pathologist; what I must do is clarify the facts." Uesugi Muneyuki had completely thought it through: "Whatever I find, that is what it is; I will absolutely not change it. If you want me to cooperate with the hospital to forge and alter reports, using my influence to make the deceased's family submit and make the court and District Public Prosecutors Office wary—I'm sorry, I can't do it!"

"If the deceased's family does not entrust me, I still say the same thing: Professor Zaizen's actions do not count as a misdiagnosis, but altering the medical records and my autopsy report after the surgery is unacceptable! Therefore, I must testify personally so as not to betray the trust of the deceased's family!"

"As for offending people, Professor, do I look like I'm afraid of offending people?" Uesugi Muneyuki spread his arms: "Outside the White Tower, are there not other towers?"

"Fine, since you have made up your mind, I won't say anything more." Professor Okochi's gaze flickered.

"Thank you, Professor." Uesugi Muneyuki signaled to Mikoto that they should go.

"Uesugi-kun." Just as Uesugi Muneyuki reached the door, Professor Okochi called him back.

"Professor?"

"Although I only reluctantly accepted you at the time for the sake of your grandfather, I have always had prejudices against you because you are eager for quick success and instant benefits, and you like to give conclusions before reasons; your utilitarianism is too heavy. I thought, perhaps you were just another Zaizen." Professor Okochi said: "But a year and a half has passed, Uesugi-kun; I have not regretted accepting you as a disciple for a single day."

"If you want to stay, you only need to tell me."

"Thank you, Professor, I feel the same." Uesugi Muneyuki also turned around and bowed: "I feel deeply honored to be your disciple."

After saying this, Uesugi Muneyuki and Ishihara Mikoto went out.

Professor Okochi watched Uesugi Muneyuki leave, thought for a moment, and finally picked up the phone.

"Hello, is this Shimazaki-san? Yes, it's me, Okochi. Ah, it has been such a long, long time..."

"There is something I need to tell you."

……………………

"Arie-rie~ Uesugi-kun? What wind blew you here?"

In the Director's office, Director Ukai of the Tokyo Medical and Dental University Hospital was full of smiles as he looked at Uesugi Muneyuki, who had come before him: "You have been a very busy man lately; with the Metropolitan Police Department and the television stations, why aren't you properly serving as your Uesugi Forensic Examiner at Sakuradamon, but instead returning to our hospital? I remember the Finance Department hasn't shorted your salary."

"Director." Uesugi Muneyuki placed his altered pathological autopsy report in front of Director Ukai: "Was this report altered at your instruction?"

"Hmm?" Director Ukai took the report, feigned a glance, and put it down: "I don't remember. Uesugi-kun, being a Director is very busy; how could I remember so many things? You are also very busy, aren't you? With so many things in the Special Mission Unit, why bother wasting time here?"

"Very well, if the Director does not recognize this report, then it is fake." Uesugi Muneyuki made a move to pick up the report: "Then I will void it, because I do not acknowledge that this is a report I wrote! I will write a new one!"

"Uesugi-kun~" When Uesugi Muneyuki said this, Director Ukai had to wave his hands hurriedly: "Don't be like this! Why are you suddenly so concerned about this Sasaki case?"

"Because I discovered that someone altered my report." Uesugi Muneyuki looked calmly at the old fox before him: "Director, do you know who it was? If you don't know, then I will go find Professor Zaizen."

"Who is it? I don't know." Upon hearing Zaizen's name, Director Ukai finally stood up and walked slowly to the front of Uesugi Muneyuki. A pair of small eyes behind his plain glasses looked at him; there was more white than iris: "So, Uesugi-kun, you are determined to clarify this matter?"

"Then can the Director tell me who altered the autopsy report?" Uesugi Muneyuki sighed.

"Tokyo Medical and Dental University is your alma mater, Uesugi-kun!" Director Ukai said in a tone that was neither warm nor cold: "We finally produced a top-tier surgical master, a member of the International Surgical Association!"

"I know."

"It was I who approved an extra twenty thousand in special salary for you every month! It was I who made your peer review only three months!"

"I know."

"Uesugi-kun! A soldier is raised for a thousand days to be used for a single moment! The hospital has cultivated you, and the hospital now needs your help! Our Tokyo Medical and Dental University has done nothing to wrong you!" Director Ukai's voice became increasingly urgent: "We just need you to issue a report that is favorable to us! We are on the same side, not Professor Higashi or the deceased's family! Zaizen did nothing wrong!"

"The trouble you caused before! The hospital bore it for you! The things you stirred up before, the hospital smoothed over for you!" Director Ukai's voice gradually accelerated: "You haven't been performing so many autopsies that you've started empathizing with the dead, have you?"

"Never, ever sympathize with those patients, especially patients who like to stir up medical disputes! We have neither the time nor the extra beds for these insatiable people. Do you believe that if you stand on the side of the medical agitators today, when you are entangled by medical agitators tomorrow, the one who can truly save you, protect you, and treat you as one of their own will still be the hospital!" Director Ukai patted Uesugi Muneyuki on the shoulder: "Is the life of a stranger really that important compared to your own life?"

"That is not a medical dispute; it was indeed death caused by Professor Zaizen's surgery. Why won't the hospital admit it?" Uesugi Muneyuki shook his head: "I know, it's because if Professor Zaizen, who finally built up a reputation, is found to have problems with his diagnostic ability, it will ruin the hospital's signboard, right?"

"…………You don't understand!" Director Ukai was quite exasperated: "You foolish child, you don't understand at all how terrifying the dark side of the medical world is! I am doing this for your own good!"

"Doing it for my own good means kicking me from the Department of Surgery to the Forensic Medicine Department? Doing it for my own good means using my influence to force the District Public Prosecutors Office and the court to submit? If the deceased's family hadn't found me, I wouldn't even have known my report was altered." Uesugi Muneyuki shook the report in his hand: "And, for the past year and a half, the hospital has used my name and my influence to do quite a few things, right? And over at the Metropolitan Police Department, some projects even took the initiative to cooperate with this hospital? Just the hundred-million-yen funds alone, three have been built, right?"

"Director, how many people have you persuaded with this rhetoric?"

"Sigh... Uesugi-kun, so you are determined to go against your own alma mater, is that it?" Director Ukai was left speechless by Uesugi Muneyuki, and he could only sigh in the end: "It is a pity; our hospital does not need a doctor who does not consider the hospital's reputation."

"No problem, I can resign myself." Uesugi Muneyuki nodded.

He felt completely disappointed with everything about this hospital.

"What is even more a pity is that, according to custom, Uesugi-kun, having done such a thing, all the hospitals covered by the entire Kanto Medical Association... you might have to go to Kansai to find a job. However, running back and forth between the Metropolitan Police Department and Kansai might be a wider world for you." Director Ukai made a final effort: "Have you really thought it through?"

Uesugi Muneyuki stood up: "I have thought it through; I will resign voluntarily."

After saying this, Uesugi Muneyuki turned and left: "Also, Director, you also know nothing about the darkness of the medical world."

"Tsk!" Director Ukai watched Uesugi Muneyuki leave, his eyes filled with displeasure.

You know nothing about the darkness of the medical world! You must know that Professor Zaizen's foster father is the Vice President of the Kanto Medical Association. You brat, you will never find a job at a regular hospital in Kanto again!

Just as he thought this, the phone on the desk rang.

"Hello!" Director Ukai picked up the phone.

When he heard the voice of the person on the other end, Director Ukai instantly sprang up from his chair, his waist standing straight!

It was the Cabinet Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Shimazaki Shosuke!

The other party had only asked a few questions, and Director Ukai was already sweating profusely.

This was not the end; not a few minutes later, another call came in.

It is Professor Funao, the director of the University of Tokyo Hospital and chairman of the Japan Medical Association!

"Chairman Funao?! This... this is against the rules!" Director Ukai said over the phone.

"Rules? I'm sorry... Director Ukai, in the medical world, we at the University of Tokyo Medical Department are the rules!"

(End of this chapter)