Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu

  Tang Jingjing arrived at Chark City Hospital in less than 20 minutes by driving Kang Hua’s car. She text messaged Kang Hua, and found that the latter had already woken up. Kang Hua told Tang Jingjing to go and rescue Zhang Fan. It wouldn’t be convenient for Kang Hua to personally go, but Tang Jingjing would be able to represent her.

  The patient’s older cousin’s anger was greatly reduced after he saw how calm Zhang Fan was. Since the patient’s cousin was a leader on a City Communist Committee, he wasn’t exactly dumb.

  Superintendent Chen watched the patient’s cousin and Zhang Fan silently sit in his office. Both Zhang Fan and the patient’s cousin ignored the superintendent. The room was dead silent until Tang Jingjing finally arrived in the superintendent’s office. When she opened the door, she first looked over Zhang Fan, and asked him, “Are you alright? Were you injured?”


  “Sister Tang, I’m perfectly fine.” Zhang Fan stood up to greet Tang Jingjing.

  “Director Tang!” The patient’s older cousin and the superintendent both rather awkwardly stood up to greet Tang Jingjing. They recognized her as the current Chark City Leader Kang Hua’s personal assistant.

  “I heard that you’re trying to unlawfully detain Doctor Zhang? Leader Kang already knows about the situation. She told me to ask you, isn’t this an official Communist Party hospital? Aren’t you all Communist Party members? Don’t you know the laws at all? What right do you have to detain another person?” Tang Jingjing spoke in a severe tone without giving any face.

  The patient’s cousin hurriedly stepped forward, and said, “Director Tang, it’s a misunderstanding, it’s all just a misunderstanding. Please listen to my explanation.”


  “No need. I’m not the city leader, so I don’t have the right to listen to your explanation. Will it be alright if I take Doctor Zhang with me right now? If there’s any problem with his surgical treatment, you can ask for medical assistance from Chasu City Hospital, or you can call the police.”


  “Yes, of course! We really didn’t try to unlawfully detain Doctor Zhang at all! It’s all just a small misunderstanding.”


  “I’m going to say the same thing I did before. The patient’s surgery was completed successfully, and he’s no longer in any danger. If you have any doubts at all, please obtain a medical opinion from a neutral third party. Also, I have another thing to add. Please pay me for my surgery,” Zhang Fan said to the patient’s cousin and the superintendent. He was addressing the last part to the superintendent. Usually, the hospital was responsible in name for paying invited guest doctors, but the money would actually come from the patient’s family.

  “Please wait a moment, Doctor Zhang. Please wait just a little while. I’ll head over to our hospital’s finance department immediately.” Superintendent Chen was feeling rather helpless since he had obviously supported the wrong side in this incident. He was truly regretting how he hadn’t known that this Doctor Zhang had connections at higher level!

  “Sister Tang, could I ask you to wait a little while for me? I must receive my surgery fee. I worked hard all throughout the wee hours of the morning. I can’t do that for free.”


  With Zhang Fan’s comment, the originally tense atmosphere eased up slightly. “Yeah, agreed. We must properly thank Doctor Zhang. We were the ones who were stupid earlier,” the patient’s cousin hurriedly stated.

  “No need for that. Chark City Hospital just needs to send Doctor Zhang’s payment to Leader Kang’s office. Let’s go, as Leader Kang is waiting for you,” Tang Jingjing said with a stern expression. Since she represented Kang Hua right now, she didn’t need to give face to anyone else.

  Zhang Fan and Tang Jingjing then left Chark City Hospital, and the latter got on Zhang Fan’s car. After getting on, she immediately asked, “There’s no problem with the surgery, right?”


  “Relax, from the diagnosis and treatment all the way to the medical report, there’s no problem whatsoever. Besides, the patient is no longer in any danger.”


  Tang Jingjing definitely had some skills of her own, being able to become the City Leader’s personal secretary and assistant. Right when she arrived at the hospital, she had accused the patient’s cousin of unlawful detainment, which could make even the unreasonable sound reasonable had Zhang Fan been in the wrong, with how much she scared the patient’s cousin.

  “That’s good, then. Sheesh, you. Remembering to ask for money even at such a moment?” Tang Jingjing laughed and teased Zhang Fan.

  “That’s what I deserve! Sigh! I’m definitely not coming back to this hospital anymore. This Director Chang here really caused so much trouble for me. There shouldn’t even have been an incident at all. All he needed to do was properly explain the patient’s medical trouble to the patient’s family, yet he managed to make things so that nobody was satisfied. I’m really thankful to you for helping me out today.”


  “Why thank me? You should thank the person waiting for you in her office. Leader Kang was worried that you would get hurt, so she told me to first bring you back with me no matter what the situation was. But, since the patient is fine and the surgery was successful, there definitely won’t be any trouble at all. What do you want to do about things? I’ll go tell Leader Kang.” Tang Jingjing had a mischievous tone as she wanted to see Zhang Fan’s attitude.

  “Haha, I absolutely must thank you, troubling you so early in the morning. Actually, I’m not that angry. It’s just that the superintendent and surgical director at this hospital here are so inept. They don’t even try to think about how to resolve an incident. The superintendent just tries to push responsibility onto others, while the director just lets his temper get the better of him.”


  “Haha, you seem quite incredible now. Other hospitals are even hiring you as a guest doctor? You must be making lots of extra money.” Tang Jingjing knew what to do now since Zhang Fan didn’t want to do anything else about this.

  “It’s all money earned from hard work, sigh!”


  “Relax, I won’t try to borrow money from you.”


  As they chatted, they arrived at the government administration building. When Zhang Fan entered Kang Hua’s office, she immediately said, “It’s good that you’re alright. I wasn’t as worried anymore after Little Tang called me and said that you were fine. It wouldn’t have been convenient for me to go, otherwise I would have gone immediately.”


  Kang Hua understood quite well how important Li Xiao was after the latter helped Kang Hua get promoted. Kang Hua also understood quite well that Li Xiao viewed Zhang Fan with great importance. Not only had Li Xiao gifted Zhang Fan a car, Kang Hua even heard through Wang Qian that that Li Xiao had sold Zhang Fan a home at base price for zero profit.

  “Thank you, Leader Kang. I’m sorry to trouble you so early in the morning.” This was the first time that Zhang Fan had contacted Kang Hua since her promotion, so he was feeling a little awkward. He wouldn’t have wanted to trouble her if it wasn’t for how unreasonable the patient’s cousin was being.

  “Just look at you, so polite. How’s President Li been recovering lately? Help me call out President Li the next time that I’m in Chasu City. I’ll treat you guys to a meal.” Kang Hua wasn’t the type to help others for free. She immediately issued a small request to Zhang Fan.

  “Oh, President Li has been recovering quite well. I’ll go and ask her when I return. I’ll call Secretary Tang if she has time.” Zhang Fan was feeling even more awkward now.

  “Alright then. There’s no rush. Still, we should all get together when we’re all free. We haven’t eaten together in so long. Are you busy at Chasu City Hospital? It seems that you’ve already become an expert doctor, being hired at other hospitals as a guest doctor.”


  “Haha, it’s because Chark City is really far away, so Chasu City Hospital’s directors are unwilling to come here.”


  “It’s already incredible that others are inviting you to perform surgery elsewhere. This means you’re receiving recognition within the field! You probably haven’t eaten yet, right? Let’s have Little Tang take you out for breakfast. You should then have a good rest, and sleep before you go back to Chasu City. I won’t agree to you driving while fatigued.” Although Kang Hua’s words were friendly, Zhang Fan still felt a sense of distance from her.

  “Alright. I’ll be leaving with Secretary Tang, then. Thank you, Leader Kang.” Zhang Fan expressed his thanks once again, and then went over to Tang Jingjing’s office.

  “Okay, let’s go eat breakfast. The government administration building’s cafeteria is quite excellent.”


  “Let’s wait a moment, I’ll rest here for a moment.” Zhang Fan wanted to leave only after he got his money. He had only asked to be off for the morning shift at Chasu City Hospital today. His cell phone was also out of battery charge by now, so he wanted to rush back to Chasu City.

  “Sigh! I’m scared of how much of a miser you are! Let’s have some tea, then. Relax, they’ll definitely bring you the money here in time for you to have breakfast.”


  With Tang Jingjing saying this, Zhang Fan became too embarrassed to stay here and wait for his money to arrive. Thus, he went to the cafeteria to eat together with Tang Jingjing. Right when he arrived at the cafeteria, Superintendent Chen and the patient’s cousin hastily arrived.

  “Doctor Zhang, just look at the mess that Director Chang caused today. It’s all his fault. Please forgive him.” Superintendent Chen handed Zhang Fan an envelope. Zhang Fan felt the envelope, and could tell that there was more than 1000 yuan inside. There were no legal standards for surgery fees, and accepting this envelope of money for his official surgery fee wouldn’t be considered illegal at all. Thus, Zhang Fan instantly took the envelope.

  “Feel free to call me if anything happens to the patient. I performed the surgery, so I’ll take responsibility for everything.” Zhang Fan then ignored the two men as he was in a hurry to go back to Chasu City.

  “Director Tang, um……” The patient’s cousin expectantly and pitifully looked towards Tang Jingjing.

  “Doctor Zhang is quite nice, and doesn’t wish to press charges. Otherwise, you’d be charged with false imprisonment at the very minimum. Leader Kang is also taking this situation seriously, but since you seem to have a good attitude, she’s willing to forget about it. Just behave in the future.” Kang Hua had previously told Tang Jingjing that if Zhang Fan was in the wrong, she was to do her best to try and mediate the situation. But, since Zhang Fan wasn’t in the wrong, she really wanted to extort this patient’s cousin who was a Chark City Communist Party Committee leader. That was how to increase her and Kang Hua’s authority.

  Since Zhang Fan had now received his money, he didn’t even eat breakfast as he said goodbye to Tang Jingjing. He asked her to tell Kang Hua that he was leaving as he didn’t want to personally go greet Kang Hua again.

  Meanwhile, later at Chasu City Hospital, on the afternoon of the same day……

  Zhang Fan had yet to arrive for his afternoon work shift. His cell phone was unreachable. Thus, Wang Yanan was somewhat confused. “That Zhang Fan, he hasn’t taken a single vacation ever since he joined this hospital. Could it be that his love confession yesterday was rejected?” She kept feeling like this might be the case, so she immediately phoned Shao Hua.

  “Did Zhang Fan give you a love confession yesterday?”


  “Not really, what’s the matter?” Shao Hua was also rather confused. She didn’t think that this was something that Wang Yanan should be concerned about.

  “I guess that means you rejected him, then. Zhang Fan hasn’t come in to work at all today. This has never happened even once before. Could it be that he’s depressed?” Although Wang Yanan was a bit gossipy, she really was concerned about his sake.

  Shao Hua had a much steadier personality than Wang Yanan’s. Also, Shao Hua hadn’t finished thinking about what type of relationship she wanted with Zhang Fan. She hadn’t even gotten the chance to accept or refuse his last night’s request to go out with him and be his girlfriend. “I don’t think that’s what’s happening. Could it be that he’s ill? Have you tried calling him?”


  “I have! His cell phone won’t even pick up! I’m going over to his place to take a look right now. If he’s not there, and he still doesn’t show up by the time that his scheduled work shift is over, I’m going to report him as missing to the police.”


  “Oh! I’ll come over to look for him as well.” Shao Hua was now breaking out into a cold sweat. Wang Yanan had exaggerated things so much that she felt obliged to go and check on Zhang Fan even as just a normal friend. ‘Why is he so unreliable! I did like him a little!’


  Although Zhang Fan had woken up at three o’clock in the morning, he wasn’t too tired due to the System strengthening his body. It wasn’t a problem for him to drive as long as he drove a little slower than usual. He arrived at Chasu City Hospital right before his scheduled work shift should have been over. When he arrived at the entrance, he saw Wang Yanan, Shao Hua, and Li Liang together, about to hail a taxi.

  “Where are you guys going? What’s happening?”


  “You dare to ask!? You were unreachable by phone for the whole day, and nobody knew where you were. We thought that that you were missing! We were about to go to the police station to file a missing person report!” Wang Yanan angrily scolded Zhang Fan.

  “Are you the type who never turns on his cell phone when outside?” Shao Hua was also a bit angry. She wasn’t that worried at first, but she also became rather worried because of how Wang Yanan acted.

  Li Liang opened his mouth, but didn’t say anything in the end. Zhang Fan was incredibly moved. He had been by himself here in the border province for two years, and there were finally people who cared about him. “I was performing a surgery at Chark City Hospital. I left in the middle of the night, and some things happened, so my cell phone ran out of battery. I’m truly sorry.”


  “So you were making extra money outside again! I was wrong to have worried about you!” Wang Yanan was quite angry, primarily because Zhang Fan hadn’t taken her for a surgery, and because she felt like she wasted her entire day worrying.

  “Hey, shouldn’t you be happy that he’s alright? It’s good that he’s alright. I’ll be leaving now, then.” Shao Hua smiled at Wang Yanan. Shao Hua heaved a sigh of relief that Zhang Fan was alright and had been doing something proper.

  “Don’t be in such a hurry! Since you’re all here, and it’s dinnertime, let’s all eat dinner together. I haven’t eaten anything all day.” Zhang Fan started to pretend to be pitiful.

  “Let’s go, then. He must have earned a lot of money today. Let’s go eat something expensive! Let’s go to W Restaurant for seafood buffet!” Wang Yanan hurriedly agreed as she was still quite angry.

  “I won’t be going. I still need to finish writing my medical reports.” Li Liang was about to run away as he could see sparks flying.

  “Don’t run off, we’re all going. After running around all day to look for him, we absolutely must make him treat us to a meal!” Wang Yanan pulled on Li Liang, not letting him leave.

  “Let’s just eat somewhere close instead. He hasn’t eaten anything all day, after all,” Shao Hua suggested.

  “Oh my! And you say you—” Wang Yanan didn’t get a chance to finish her sentence, as Shao Hua covered her mouth. Zhang Fan had picked correctly as Shao Hua was quite a kind girl with a good upbringing.

  Superintendent Chen had really wanted to calm either Zhang Fan’s or Chark City Leader Kang Hua’s anger as he had actually stuffed 5000 yuan inside the envelope for Zhang Fan! The patient’s cousin had also originally prepared 5000 yuan, but it wouldn’t have been good for him to be seen giving it to Zhang Fan in the government administration building’s cafeteria, and when he saw that Zhang Fan didn’t seem too angry, the patient’s cousin changed his mind, and didn’t give Zhang Fan any money in the end at all.

  W Restaurant was located in a high-class mall in Chasu City. This was a place with many different stores and fun activities. There was a well-known seafood buffet here which was ridiculously expensive, at 260 yuan per person.

  Wang Yanan was quite calculating. Zhang Fan paying for the four of them here would be slightly more than 1000 yuan, which she figured would cleanly deal with the money that she thought he earned today. Otherwise, she’d feel so aggrieved over having worried about him for nothing! Since W Restaurant was really expensive, Shao Hua didn’t want to go. To put things nicely, she was just a normal friend to Zhang Fan. To put things bluntly, she had only gotten acquainted with him recently.

  Wang Yanan refused to let Shao Hua leave. She secretly whispered to her, “If you’re going to reject him, then go ahead and leave today. But if you still haven’t figured out your answer, then don’t leave. Besides, even though he just started working recently, he really does have a good income. You see that car of his? There’s not many of that brand in Chasu City! We should take advantage of him whenever we can.”


  Shao Hua couldn’t help coming as Wang Yanan wouldn’t let her leave. Meanwhile, Zhang Fan truly wanted to treat them to a good meal. Since they had truly worried about him, he felt that even spending all 5000 yuan that he earned today would be worthwhile.

  It was extremely profitable for the restaurant to have the two women eating there. They were mostly finished after just one plate of sushi and two desserts. Zhang Fan and Li Liang did most of the eating. Fatty Li Liang was quite a big eater, and Zhang Fan was also a tremendous eater ever since gaining his System. The two of them spent two full hours eating, without stopping for even a moment. Shao Hua was truly astonished by the end. “You must have been starving after not having eaten all day!”


  “Brother Zhang, which city did you go to? What happened that took you the entire day?” Li Liang asked as he ate. The two women also looked over in interest. They had been too busy being angry earlier, and had forgotten to ask.

  “Sigh! It’s a long story.” Zhang Fan summarized what happened today the best he could. However, he didn’t mention anything about Tang Jingjing and Kang Hua, since he felt there was no need now that everything was resolved.

  “Take me with you the next time that there’s a surgery. Otherwise……” Wang Yanan raised her fists and made a threatening pose.

  “Are you alright?” Li Liang looked over at Zhang Fan.

  “I’m perfectly fine, just look!” Zhang Fan glanced over in Shao Hua’s direction.

  “You still haven’t rested ever since three o’clock in the morning?” Shao Hua asked.

  “I’m not that tired!” Zhang Fan felt like his heart was melting into sweet honey because Shao Hua was concerned about him.

  After they finished eating at the buffet, Wang Yanan intentionally pulled away Li Liang, hailing a taxi together with him in order to create an opportunity for Zhang Fan to have alone time together with Shao Hua while taking her home. Zhang Fan checked the time, and said, “It’s still early tonight. How about we go out somewhere? Is that alright?”


  “You should go back and rest first. You must be tired after a long day.”


  “I’m honestly alright. I slept early last night, so I’m really not tired.” Zhang Fan didn’t want to give up on this opportunity to be alone together with Shao Hua.