Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu

  Wu Jinxi finally took his two disciples over to new jobs at Chasu City Chinese Medicine Hospital. His relationship with Gao Shijun had worsened to the point where the department didn’t even hold a farewell party for him. Gao Shijun heaved a sigh of relief after Wu Jinxi had finally left. Arguing every day was too much for him to bear.

  Wang Yanan was determined to become a surgeon. Zhang Fan was highly skilled, and she loved to learn. She swiftly improved after following Zhang Fan for more than one month.

  Wang Yanan had joined Chasu City Hospital in the same year as Zhang Fan. Since they had both joined recently, they were closer than regular coworkers would be. It would only be natural for newcomers to want to team up together when they simultaneously entered a company together.

  In medicine, especially surgery, you couldn’t be afraid of getting dirty or tired. While Wang Yanan wasn’t one bit afraid of getting tired, it was slightly troublesome that she hated being dirty. Her white doctor’s coat was forever as clean as if it was new, while Zhang Fan’s doctor’s coat was covered with dirty marks.

  This wasn’t because Zhang Fan was slovenly. It was that all sorts of situations could happen to surgeons who needed to perform emergency treatments. Perhaps a patient would suddenly spurt blood all over the doctor’s body, or another example would be that the doctor would need to kneel on the hospital floor to save a patient who suddenly fell unconscious. Zhang Fan always rushed to the forefront in these types of situations.

  The doctors with the second-highest level certification didn’t work steady shifts. They were simply on call. Zhang Fan, Wang Yanan, the two attending physicians Xue Fei and Zhou Chengfu, and a few medical specialist doctors were the only ones on duty for tonight’s night shift. Any time that Zhang Fan was on night shift, he was unable to stay in the emergency department, because there were patients staying in the surgical department that he needed to check up on. If a problem with any of the patients suddenly appeared, Zhang Fan had to immediately be there to take care of it.

  At 12:40 a.m., right when Zhang Fan was about to turn off the lights and go to sleep, a night shift nurse called out, “Doctor Zhang, hurry to the emergency department! They say that several patients in serious condition just arrived. They told you to hurry.”


  Zhang Fan immediately grabbed his stethoscope and ran towards the elevator. The emergency department was in utter chaos. There were crying and screaming family members along with moaning patients. The entire hallway of the emergency department was filled with people.

  “Please make way!” After Zhang Fan arrived, Doctor Jiang from the emergency department spotted him, and immediately informed him of the situation. “All of these patients just arrived from the coal mine. Four men were injured in a mine collapse. They were severely injured by the collapsing ceiling. See for yourself.”


  At a glance, the patients didn’t even look human. They were completely black all over, and even their injuries were more black than red, including even the blood they bled.

  Zhang Fan performed a preliminary checkup. Of the four patients, the most seriously injured one had a lumbar vertebrae fracture. The other three patients were slightly less injured, but also in a serious condition.

  “Phone Director Gao immediately. All four of these patients require immediate emergency surgery,” Zhang Fan told Wang Yanan. He also contacted the other doctors from the surgery department.

  With four seriously injured patients, they would require three doctors each, for a total of 12 doctors. Zhang Fan began phoning all the doctors in orthopedic surgery department #1, and everyone arrived within half an hour. The patients’ family members talked to the doctors, and signed permission forms for the surgeries. Just as Zhang Fan and the others were about to go into their respective operating rooms, an uninjured coal miner who helped bring the patients said, “Doctors, our boss has arrived.”


  This person was a middle-aged man with several shiny golden teeth.

  “Are you Director Gao? So sorry to trouble you all in the middle of the night. Please take good care of my employees.” After saying this, he made a gesture to someone following him who seemed like his secretary. His secretary began giving every doctor an envelope.

  This seemed as if higher-ups were here to assuage the feelings of lower-ranked employees. Gao Shijun squeezed his envelope, and said, “It’s our duty to treat the ill and injured. Since they’ve arrived at our hospital, we’ll take good care of them. This isn’t necessary!”


  “This is a payment for your hard work, a payment that I’m donating in my name. This has nothing to do with bribery, you know! As long as you can save the lives of all four employees, I’ll have additional magnificent gifts.”


  This was arrogant, truly arrogant. Zhang Fan patted his envelope and felt that there had to be approximately 10,000 yuan inside. He loved this type of arrogance. Meanwhile, Gao Shijun felt truly awkward. He was stuck between a rock and a hard place. If he didn’t take the money, his subordinates would be greatly displeased, but taking the money made him felt as if he was being treated like a beggar.

  He decided to forget about the money for the time being, and started the surgeries. Gao Shijun, Cui Pingjun, Xue Fei, and a medical specialist doctor acted as a team for the surgery on the most seriously injured patient with the spine injury. Zhang Fan, Li Hongtu, and Wang Yanan were in charge of operating on a coal miner patient who had shoulder, humerus, and pelvic bone fractures.

  The third coal miner patient had a collarbone fracture; Zhou Chengfu’s team treated him. The fourth patient had only superficial injuries—although he looked terrible with bleeding everywhere, he only needed some disinfectant and to have his injuries cleaned up.

  Gao Shijun’s and Zhang Fan’s surgeries were both difficult operations. The spine injury patient would become paralyzed if the surgery didn’t go well. As for Zhang Fan’s patient, his shoulder joint had been completely crushed. This would definitely result in a stiff shoulder joint with greatly reduced flexibility afterwards. The patient’s arm would become useless for exerting any strength in the future.

  A bit more than four hours later, Zhang Fan’s team finished the surgery. When Zhang Fan left his operating table, he found that Gao Shijun still hadn’t finished. Zhang Fan didn’t try to go into that operating room, as it was already filled with four doctors. There was also another doctor outside in charge of debridement. He didn’t know how the other operations went.

  This border province that Zhang Fan was in bordered H Country 1 . Many mines were located here. These mines had first been developed by the Chinese government, but they somehow gradually became private property.

  In autumn, the coal mines would want to dig up as much coal as possible. This was because the peak coal season would be arriving soon in winter. In the border province, everything being stable was more important than anything else. Accidents wouldn’t be a big deal—as long as the miners’ family members didn’t turn a mining accident into a big incident, there would be no major problems. The prerequisite for the miners’ families not to start an incident would be to save the miners’ lives and give their families plenty of money.

  This was the first time that Zhang Fan had ever seen someone so rich. The coal mine owner was ridiculously generous with his money. After the surgeries were all completed, he had an entire banquet’s worth of food moved to the doctors’ offices. Gao Shijun didn’t even know whether to laugh or cry.

  “Sorry for all the trouble in the middle of the night. Please, enjoy some food, it’s on me. After a few days, when all my employees are alright, I’ll come back here again. I still have business to attend to, so I must leave now. Please, eat as much as you like.” The coal mine owner then left together with a large group of subordinates. Zhang Fan felt that he seemed just like a mafia boss.

  It was now right before dawn. None of the doctors had an appetite for such a big meal after pulling an all-nighter performing surgery. It was unknown how much money the coal mine owner had spent on all this food. It had to have also been hard on the chefs to make all this food in the middle of the night.

  Gao Shijun helplessly watched the coal mine owner leave as he said, “If anyone wants to eat something, feel free to eat. If nobody wants to eat, let’s pack the food up and store it. We can’t just leave it in our offices. Although that coal mine owner said such pretty words, that’s because he left the nasty words unsaid. If his employees are fine, then everything will be wonderful. If anything happened, then he’ll definitely blame us and never let this go. Fortunately, all the surgeries were very successful. Everyone, pay extra attention to the four coal miners’ postoperative care. Head Nurse Liao Juan, I’ll be troubling you for this.” After that, Gao Shijun told all the doctors to go rest.

  One week later, the two slightly less injured coal miners were able to leave the hospital. Although the other two miners hadn’t recovered enough to leave yet, it would only be a matter of time. This time, the coal mine owner showed off even more. Last time was the middle of the night, so what he could show off was probably limited. This time, he invited the entire orthopedic department #1 to a meal by having several Audis sent over to take the department’s doctors to a mountainside villa.

  The coal mine owner’s female assistant came to greet them. She was a master’s degree student from one of the border province’s universities, and her looks and academic qualifications were both top-notch here in the rural border province. Gao Shijun refused to attend this meal, but he didn’t forbid other doctors from going.

  This mountain villa property was several dozen square acres. There was a vineyard outside, some western-style buildings, lots of fish ponds, dog kennels, and so on. The wine was Moutai wine, and the smokes were Zhonghua brand, the best Chinese brands for alcohol and smokes, respectively. The food included cold-water fishheads, deer penises, deer fetuses, mountain chickens, pine mushrooms, and so on. At any rate, everything was stranger and more miraculous than the next.

  The female assistant toasted everyone and said a few words before she left. Basically, she was saying how generous her boss was and that everyone was welcome to eat as much as they liked.

  After everyone finished eating, all the doctors received two cartons of Zhonghua smokes, two bottles of Moutai wine, and a red packet containing 10,000 yuan.

  On the way back to the hospital, the atmosphere in the cars was only average. Although it had been a wonderful meal, everyone had been truly astounded by the coal mine owner’s riches. This was pure, naked jealousy! Zhang Fan, however, wasn’t thinking about such things. He was instead wondering if he should sell his Moutai wine bottles or to take them home for his father to taste. This was Moutai wine, the most expensive Chinese wine brand! His father had only heard of it before, but never even seen it.

  “Here, I’ll give my share of smokes to you. If I take them home, it’ll only worsen my father’s health, so you lucked out.” Wang Yanan directly gave her two cartons of smokes to Zhang Fan. Not only was Zhang Fan unreserved about accepting them, he even openly stared at her two bottles of Moutai wine in her hands.

  “How shameless can you be! I’m still taking this back with me. Let’s go, just a single rich person has made you all like this!”


  This was still 2009. The Chinese yuan was doing well. This entire meal would cost the coal mine owner the price of half a house. Of course all the doctors were astounded!