[Doctor Ling plans to have hotpot for dinner, and he’s craving for pig brains. Are any of you able to get a booth at Haidilao?] When the surgery was about to end, Wang Jia exited the operating theater and stealthily sent a message to the chat group where people gossiped about Ling Ran.
Contrary to many people’s imagination, even though the operating theaters of hospitals were clean and orderly, the people working inside them were not robots. In other words, all of them would always find ways and opportunities to break the rules to reduce their workload.
Among all the nurses involved in the surgery, the workload of circulating nurses was the lowest. Hence, when the surgery was rather relaxing and management of the patient during surgery was not tight, the nurses sitting in the corners of the operating theaters and browsing their Tiktok newsfeed were most likely circulating nurses.
Achilles tendon repair surgery was naturally a relatively easy surgery. Truth be told, if Ling Ran were not the chief surgeon of this surgery, there would only have been three and a half people in the operating theater: a chief surgeon, a scrub nurse, half an assistant, half an anesthetist, and half a circulating nurse.
Whenever there was a shortage of manpower, it was very normal for anesthetists to be involved in three surgeries at the same time and circulating nurses to be involved in two surgeries at the same time.
Wang Jia knew Ling Ran’s habits well. When she saw that the surgeons were wrapping up the surgery, she stealthily sneaked out. If she were to be any later, the circulating nurse would be done with her job and beat her to it.
The chat group named Spoon-feeding Group replied very quickly.
[Wow, which branch of Haidilao is he planning to go to? I feel like eating hot pot for dinner now too.]
[I had a patient who worked for Haidilao before. Let me give him a call.]
[There’s no need for that. I have a patient right now who’s working for Haidilao. Let me ask her family members about it.]
A few minutes later, the nurse sent the phone number to Wang Jia so that she could make a booking.
The admin of the chat group also recorded the points the members who provided the information and made the booking had earned. She then sent a message. [We have booked twenty seats from the branch of Haidilao that Doctor Ling is going to, and those seats are positioned around Doctor Ling’s booth. Please PM me if you want a seat.]
Wang Jia happily put her phone in her pocket and returned to the operating theater. Whenever they had dinner after surgeries, the department was always the one that paid for it. She was pretty sure that she would be getting a strategic seat, too.
The surgery soon ended.
Ling Ran checked carefully that everything was okay and said to Ma Yanlin, “The patient’s medical record must be well-written, and remember to make a note about this when you submit it into the system. Do make a copy of the footage of this surgery and email it to Academician Zhu too.”
“Sure,” Ma Yanlin quickly said.
Only then did Ling Ran take off his gloves and the scrubs he was wearing. He tossed them into a bucket and exited the operating theater.
There was another surgery waiting for him.
Ma Yanlin quickly finished up the surgery with the anesthetist. He then wheeled the patient to the recovery room.
Wang Jia followed him, and when she saw that there was no one around them, she whispered, “Doctor Ma, have you gotten a booth at Haidilao?”
“Oh, sh*t! If you didn’t say anything about it, I would have forgotten.” Ma Yanlin panicked. He then looked at Wang Jia. “Are you able to help me?”
“I happen to be able to… I have a friend who had reserved a booth at Haidilao, and since Doctor Ling wants to go there, I was thinking that…” Wang Jia said very slowly with a smile.
Ma Yanlin immediately made his decision. “I owe you one.”
“Don’t forget about this!” Wang Jia laughed and forwarded the booking information to Ma Yanlin.
“You’ve just saved my life,” Ma Yanlin clasped his hands before his chest and bowed at Wang Jia.
…..
At night, the single men of Ling Treatment Group as well as Su Jiafu, Wang Jia, and a few other people headed to Haidilao in style.
This could be said to be a custom of the Ling Treatment Group. If the unmarried doctors and nurses did not even get to have a good meal after operating on patients throughout the day and into the night, morale would be low.
At the same time, Spoon-feeding Group was bursting with information.
Even President Pei only obtained this information after giving the nurses a bag of peaches of supreme quality.
“Do take care of our daughter alone tonight. I have to go out and pretend to bump into Doctor Ling.” President Pei decided to learn a lesson and forge a good relationship with this renowned doctor from Yun Hua Hospital.
President Pei’s wife had been by his side for many years, and she knew a thing or two about business. She nodded when she heard what her husband said. “Don’t take too long. Do we need to give him a big red packet?”
“Theoretically, we are utilizing our connections as we know President Wang.” President Pei hesitated for a moment. “Do prepare a red envelope for me. If there’s a need, I’ll give him a red packet.”
“How much money should I put inside there?”
“Just put whatever sum you think is appropriate. I don’t mind giving him more money, but I’m just worried that he wouldn’t want it.” President Pei was quite generous when it came to money. He did not mind filling up the entire red envelope with banknotes.
After he prepared everything, it was almost time. President Pei headed to Haidilao.
He was not planning to eat together with the doctors of Ling Treatment Group. It was not like he did not want to, but there was no need for him to do so. Aside from this, Ling Ran was probably quite reluctant to let a man he barely knew join them for dinner too.
However, he would not be able to show his sincerity by merely footing Ling Ran’s bill. Aside from this, if he were to foot Ling Ran’s bill before Ling Ran and his entourage were nearing the end of the meal, it would not be a perfect plan.
What was a perfect plan? This was something that he was only able to formulate courtesy of his shrewdness, intelligence, and years of experience being a businessman.
President Pei headed over at the right time. He even waited outside the shop for a few minutes before heading to the counter and saying, “Hello, I would like to pay for Booth 1.”
“Sure, Sir,” the young woman manning the counter said politely and clicked a few icons on the computer. She then raised her head. “Sir, the bill for Booth 1 is accounted for already.”
“Huh? Someone has paid for it already?” President Pei hesitated for a moment and asked, “The people dining in Booth 1 are doctors from Yun Hua Hospital, aren’t they? There should be more than six or seven people, and most of them are young. There’s an extremely handsome doctor among them…”
“You’re right, sir.” The cashier was not willing to say anything until President Pei mentioned the word “handsome”. Upon hearing that, she immediately said something.
President Pei could not help but freeze for a moment. “Why is the bill accounted for already? Did they pay for it themselves?”
“I don’t know about this.” The young cashier shook her head a little.
President Pei furrowed his eyebrows tightly. ‘Who got to it before me?”
“Old Pei?” Someone called out to him from the back.
President Pei turned. “Oh, President Wang? What a coincidence!”
Wang Chuanwen and his youngest brother, Wang Chuanfu were standing behind him.
“It’s not a coincidence. I’m here to foot Doctor Ling’s bill. Did you beat me to it?” Wang Chuanwen asked with a smile
Under normal circumstances, President Pei would definitely boast about having beaten Wang Chuanwen to the counter. However, right now, he could only shake his head and say, “I didn’t manage to do it. Someone footed the bill already.”
“Who did that?” Wang Chuanwen asked.
“I have no idea.” President Pei shrugged in resignation.
“Ah, then there’s nothing that we can do.” Wang Chuanwen thought about it for a few seconds and said, “Since we’re here already, why don’t we give them a toast? Hello, can you please prepare a set of glass?”
As Wang Chuanwen spoke, he whipped out a bottle of Maotai from his bag.
When President Pei saw that Wang Chuanwen only had one bottle, he quickly said, “Should I go out and purchase two more bottles? I heard that doctors are quite good at drinking.”
Wang Chuanwen quietly inserted his hand into the inner pocket of his suit jacket and whipped out another bottle of Maotai.
Behind him, Wang Chuanfu did the same thing and whipped out two bottles of Maotai. He said, “Four bottles should be enough. There are also some young nurses among them. There’s also a young doctor from the south. The Zhoushan Islands, to be exact.”
“Ah, that’s definitely enough. Sigh, I’ll have to rely on your liquor again.” President Pei said and waited for the glasses to arrive. He quickly helped the waiter and poured the bottles of Maotai into the liquor dispensers. President Pei, Wang Chuanwen, and Wang Chuanfu then followed the waiter to Booth 1.
They chatted as they walked, and they formed an S-shaped formation. The moment they arrived at the doorway of the booth, they saw a group of people before them. The group of people stood in two rows.
“Which company are you guys from?” one of the people before them said vigilantly. He seemed aversive of the newcomer, and there was a hint of arrogance in his voice.
“I’m from Kenbang Construction Holdings Limited. What about you?” The youngest son of the Wang family, Wang Chuanfu said.
The people standing before them immediately panicked a little. After a long time, one of them said, “We’re from Duco Medical Company…”
Soon, the group of people opposite them started whispering among themselves.
“Why are people from a construction company looking for Doctor Ling?”
“I don’t think they’re going to ask him to give a speech.”
“Are they going to ask him to help them sell buildings?”
“How is he supposed to help them sell it? He can’t possibly sell a whole unit. Is he supposed to make patients stay in the hospital every single time they have an indication and then give these construction workers commission from the hospitalization fees?”
