As restless as he was, Zheng Ren obediently stayed in his single room for the next two days.
He spent most of his time sleeping and replenishing his energy.
Su Yun did not show up for those two days, citing multiple meetups as an excuse. Zheng Ren let the fellow be. Aside from sleeping, he read novels and talked to Xie Yiren. He was living the life of a true nerd.
On the second day, they gave him another antibiotic drip. His fever had subsided and he felt much better.
He was still young, so a swift recovery was expected.
Cui Heming had been transferred out of the cardiology observation ward and Zheng Ren made the effort to visit and talk to him whenever he had the chance. Cui Heming’s recovery filled Zheng Ren’s heart with ease.
On the third day of Zheng Ren’s hospital stay, Department Chief Kong brought Professor Gu and Department Chief Bao to pay him a visit. Worried that Professor Gu might disagree with his judgment, Department Chief Kong dragged the chief of sports medicine along.
The congregation of department chiefs livened the atmosphere in the thoracic wing of the hospital.
A bewildered Zheng Ren was bombarded with questions from the old professors and department chiefs. What was going on?
Despite his frustration, Zheng Ren played the perfect patient and answered their questions.
He endured a few rounds of questioning, then decided to provide a comprehensive commentary on his own symptoms, recent developments and findings from several physical examinations. His answers matched standard ward round questions to a tee.
The sight of the fully-healed Zheng Ren relieved Professor Gu.
“How I wish every patient was as cooperative,” the chief of the sports science department said before leaving the room.
With Professor Gu’s approval, Zheng Ren was allowed to be discharged.
He turned to look around the hospital room—it felt like he had spent years in it.
“Little Zheng, I’m assigning you five patients. Are you confident enough to take them all on?” Interventional Surgery Department Chief Kong asked stiffly.
“Confident?” Zheng Ren was confused.
To him, it was just a surgery. Confidence was not required. Perhaps Department Chief Kong felt paranoid and worried about mistakes during the embolization procedure.
“Yes. Are you confident you can repeat the procedure you did two days ago?” the department chief barked as he scowled at Zheng Ren.
“Every surgery is different.” How could he repeat the exact procedure? Every case had its own characteristics; why else would he need to perform retrograde reconstruction of 64-slice CT scans?
As the interventional surgery department chief in one of the most renowned Class Three Grade A hospitals nationwide, he had to know this basic principle—every patient was unique.
How odd.
Zheng Ren and Department Chief Kong were on different ends of a path, each walking in the opposite direction.
Zheng Ren’s reply made Department Chief Kong’s heart stop.
If every surgery was different, did it mean that he would not be able to replicate the procedure?
If it was not replicable…
This had better not garner any bad press.
“Little Zheng, you’re still young. There will be many opportunities to come. Sometimes the quickest route to success may not be the most sustainable one,” Department Chief Kong advised earnestly.
“Em, okay,” Zheng Ren answered to placate the department chief, although he was not sure what the man meant.
Seeing Zheng Ren’s serene expression, Department Chief Kong sighed. Although he did not want Zheng Ren to perform the surgery, a part of him was curious as to how the young man would fare.
Department Chief Kong decided that all he could do was to maintain proper surveillance to ensure that there was nothing fishy about the procedure. He would interfere and stop the surgery if anything looked off.
“What preparations will you need?”
“Standard admission check-ups, along with contrast-enhanced MRI. The 64-slice CT scan must be done in this hospital and I want to personally handle the retrograde reconstruction.”
“Retrograde?”
“Yes. Using the tumor as the focus, we’ll search for potential arteries that could act as its nutrient source,” Zheng Ren replied honestly. He had no intention to keep his technique a secret.
Was this his explanation? Department Chief Kong’s distrust in Zheng Ren was intensifying. The interventional surgeon had never heard of this technique.
“It would provide the best outcome if it’s done by the surgeon,” Zheng Ren said.
“Surgeon…” That was a warning sign. Zheng Ren wanted to do everything himself.
There were no assessments that specifically required a surgeon’s expertise. All presurgical checkups were done by ancillary staff while surgeons only receive reports and scans.
Was he joking when he said the scan had to be performed by the surgeon?
“Dr. Zheng, are you sure?” Department Chief Kong had abandoned his pursuit of this new method of diagnosis, instead suspecting that Zheng Ren and Su Yun were pulling a fast one on them all.
He looked at Zheng Ren with pity in his eyes.
This was a promising surgeon with impeccable skill in interventional surgery. If only he had not fabricated his results… there was really no need for him to. Given a few years, Department Chief Kong was sure Zheng Ren could rise through the ranks.
The youth were too impatient and skipping steps was not the way to go.
Department Chief Kong let out a small sigh.
“Are you feeling unwell?” Zheng Ren asked. It was possible, given the chief’s strange questions and behavior.
The department chief only shook his head.
“Chief Kong, are the five patients in the ward now?”
“Yes.”
“Can I go have a look?” Two days of rest was enough to make Zheng Ren feel antsy for a surgery.
“Are you really confident?” The same question was fielded again.
However, the point of reference for the question kept changing.
‘Is the chief feeling alright?’ Zheng Ren thought. ‘Why is he constantly asking me if I’m confident? Is he suffering from analysis paralysis?’
“I’m ready whenever your side is ready,” Zheng Ren said after some thought. He wanted to send the correct message.
“Then let’s go.”
The two men headed to the interventional radiology and surgery department. Along the way, Zheng Ren contacted Su Yun, telling him to meet them there.
Department Chief Kong brought him to the office.
Zheng Ren had been there before, so the walkways were familiar. He greeted the doctors who passed them by.
He could not remember which doctor had been on call that day, so he greeted them all.
One of them retrieved the files from a computer. “Here are the details of the five patients.”
At that moment, Su Yun appeared behind them and glossed over the details on the computer screen. He turned away, as if unimpressed by what he saw.
As Zheng Ren started on the case files, Department Chief Kong could not help but bring up the issue one last time: “Little Zheng, I want to ask you something.”
The interruption surprised Zheng Ren. “Ah? Go on.”
“Are you positively sure about this?”
After a moment’s thought, Zheng Ren politely responded with a question of his own. “Is there a difficulty on your end? If there is, we can cancel the procedure.”
