Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu

  The hospital administration director scolded the respiratory department doctors and nurses severely. He especially scolded Zhang Fan more than anyone else. The other rotation doctor from the patient fainting incident wasn’t scolded much at all. One of the main jobs of the hospital administration director was to discover the doctors’ mistakes and stop such mistakes from happening again before any medical incident was caused. A hospital administration director would have to be an expert doctor themselves. Otherwise, if you didn’t understand how treatment worked, you wouldn’t even be able to identify the mistakes or say what was wrong even if there was a mistake!

  If you couldn’t even point out what was wrong, how would you be able to convince others? Based on your position alone? That would be ridiculous! You would have to have actual skills in order to make everyone accept your leadership. After everyone else left, the hospital administration director had Zhang Fan remain behind.

  “Sit down and have some tea with me. We’ve all been so busy during the flu epidemic. Not only was the hospital overflowing with patients, even my own family all came down with a cold. If this flu epidemic hadn’t ended when it did, I might have collapsed as well,” said the director as he poured some tea for Zhang Fan.

  Normally, the hospital administration director would only personally pour tea for doctors who were at vice director rank or above. Zhang Fan was a special exception.

  “Thank you, Director.” Zhang Fan hurriedly got up and took the tea.

  “Sheesh, that really was so dangerous on that day. What if the patient had a heart failure instead? If a doctor scared a patient to death, it would instantly become headline news!” The hospital administration director was still rather scared about what might have happened with the fainted patient.

  “I really couldn’t help it at the time. Patient #9 was suffocating to death, while patient #8 wasn’t able to be moved in time, since his legs were in poor condition.”


  “I know. I scolded you as a way of protecting you. I wouldn’t have even bothered to scold you if I hadn’t liked you. It’s almost New Year’s. What’s your plan? Are you returning home? If you’re not returning home, I have a little task for you.” The hospital administration director began to play his little schemes.

  In China, it was a common tradition to return home for New Year’s. It would only be natural for people to be homesick. They would want to return to their hometown after a year of working hard, no matter how difficult or how long the journey. This was supposed to be the time for family gatherings.

  This would be even more so the case for recent college graduates working in another province like Zhang Fan. They would miss home even more. However, the hospital administration director also knew that Zhang Fan loved to perform surgeries and do research, which was why he set a little trap for Zhang Fan.

  Actually, even if he didn’t set a trap, Zhang Fan wouldn’t return home this year for New Year’s regardless. Everyone had just finished moving. Shao Hua’s family’s friends and relatives all knew about Zhang Fan and Shao Hua’s relationship by now. Shao Hua’s parents wanted to invite all their friends and family to a big meal for New Year’s. Surprisingly, Zhang Fan’s younger sister also wanted to come visit here for New Year’s.

  Due to Zhang Fan, his family’s financial condition had significantly improved. They didn’t lack for money now, and they even had a new apartment to live in. His sister Zhang Jingshu also missed Shao Hua. Nowadays, Shao Hua was the one who wired Zhang Jingshu’s living expenses to the latter every month, so the two of them often talked to each other over the phone. Zhang Jingshu would only call Zhang Fan on occasion, and he often wouldn’t pick up, because he was either sleeping after a 24-hour work shift or in the middle of performing surgery. Zhang Jingshu also understood this, and didn’t want to disturb her older brother’s rest.

  Originally, Zhang Fan had wanted to invite his parents over to the border province for New Year’s, along with finally getting officially engaged to Shao Hua. However, Zhang Fan’s mother sought the advice of some fortune teller from somewhere, and he told her that this current year wasn’t a fortuitous one to be getting married. Zhang Fan’s parents had a discussion, and felt that it would be best to avoid having the engagement this year, which was why they decided against Zhang Fan’s plan.

  Zhang Fan felt rather helpless about all this. There was nothing he could do about his parents being superstitious. They were refusing to come to the border province. Since Zhang Jingshu was coming to the border province, they planned on going on a vacation together with some of their old coworkers.

  Zhang Fan felt that their vacation plan sounded quite unreliable. He wanted to stop them from going. However, his father said something that rendered Zhang Fan speechless. “Why aren’t you letting me go? It’s not like I’m spending your money!”


  His parents’ vacation plan seemed quite strange to Zhang Fan. They would have a seven-day trip in Beijing, and they would go by train and leave by plane. The price for this vacation was quite cheap, at 2,300 yuan per person, with food and board included. Zhang Fan felt that this was highly likely to be a scam. He was worried that his parents would end up being drawn into a scam group.

  “Mom, haven’t I given you enough spending money? You should change to using a slightly more proper travel agency. Besides, why would you want to visit Beijing during New Year’s? It will be ridiculously cold.”


  “Little Rock, no need to worry about us. All of us going on the vacation together are old men and women, so what is there to fear? Besides, this travel agency is quite proper. Auntie Li who lives on the 5th floor of our old apartment went on this tour before. You just need to take good care of yourself and your younger sister. She’s becoming more and more rebellious, so you need to lecture her. After we return from this trip, we’ll clean up over here and go over there to watch your future baby for you!”


  Zhang Fan felt more reassured because his mother was more reliable than his father. He felt that it was likely to be safer since someone else had gone on this tour before.

  “Be careful while you’re outside. Don’t be worried about saving money.”


  “I know. My Little Rock has grown up and knows to dote on me now. Make sure to send my greetings to Shao Hua’s family. That fortune teller is really accurate. The Chen Family’s new wife became pregnant. It was all because of the fortune teller’s accurate readings!”


  Zhang Fan helplessly hung up the call. No wonder why his hometown province had such a large test tube baby center with very poor business. There were too many fortune tellers!

  “Director, please tell me what the task is. I won’t return home if there’s a task. You rarely ask for anything, so of course I must give you face,” Zhang Fan answered the hospital administration director with a pretend serious expression. Zhang Fan was slowly getting accustomed to putting his real feelings aside and wearing a mask. Was this evidence that he was maturing due to Chinese society? Heh!

  “You youngster, you’re getting smarter every day. Still, your words do make me happy.” The hospital administration director was really delighted to hear Zhang Fan’s words. He even got up from his seat and walked over to the sofa that Zhang Fan was sitting on to pat the latter on the shoulder. “It’s like this. The proctology department director is getting married! He asked for a marriage leave. Since this is his second marriage, he’s not publicizing it, and is intending on secretly going on a honeymoon.”


  The hospital administration director had a rather wicked smile as he said this! He was actually quite the gossipy type.

  “Oh, I see. What do you need, then?” Zhang Fan asked. The proctology department director was in his early 40s. For some reason, he got a divorce from his first wife, and then got married to a much younger woman. Since he was a director, he was a bit too embarrassed to invite his coworkers to such a wedding, so instead he chose to go on a private honeymoon vacation.

  “Since the proctology department was only recently established as separate department, the doctors in that department still aren’t capable of the difficult work by themselves. I was thinking that since you’re still a rotation doctor, how about you rotate to the proctology department next month and take on their most difficult work?”


  “Director, how long will I be required to work there? Don’t permanently assign me to the proctology department afterwards!” Zhang Fan intentionally exaggerated when he said this.

  “It’s impossible even if you want to permanently stay in the proctology department. Superintendent Ouyang would never agree. It should be only for about a month. How about it? Are you familiar with proctology? Don’t say that you can’t do it in front of a proctology patient. At that time, even I will lose face, not just you.”


  “It’s not a problem. Then, about the other doctors in the proctology department……” Zhang Fan didn’t want the other doctors in the proctology department to resent him just for the sake of one month’s time working there.

  “Sigh! Nobody wants to join the proctology department. There’re only a few resident doctors. It will take at least three years before any of them are experienced enough to get promoted to attending physician. Basically, with the proctology department director on vacation, this department will basically shut down if you don’t go there!”


  “Alright, I’ll go since you value me so much, Director.” Zhang Fan no longer worried once he heard that there were only resident doctors. He wouldn’t need to pay so much attention to other things, since they would all be equal in rank. He would simply let his skills speak for himself.

  “Okay then. Take two days off to rest. I’ll then give you a phone call and bring you to your next rotation. The youngest ever department director at our hospital is about to be born! Haha!” The hospital administration director found his own joke really funny.

  “Ah!” Zhang Fan didn’t know how to respond to this joke.

  Zhang Fan really was quite tired as he had had far too many patients recently. He still had several medical reports to finish. It was almost New Year’s, and home cleanup wasn’t done yet, so Zhang Fan offered to help. However, Shao Hua’s parents instantly refused. They knew quite well about the flu epidemic and how busy the hospital must have been.

  Shao Hua was also now at a critical moment. She had been constantly studying for her accounting exam. She was also the prideful type as she wanted to conquer the accounting exam in just one year. This would require lots of hard work and studying late into the night on a daily basis.