Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu

  Superintendent Ouyang was being obviously biased. She was even telling general surgery director Zhao Quanping to send a second-highest level certification doctor over to help the enemy. Zhao Quanping was so angry that even his heart hurt, but what could he do?

  There was nothing that he could do. No ordinary surgery would be too difficult for Zhang Fan. Although Zhang Fan hadn’t shown off any major general surgeries yet, the fact that he could perform liver tumor removal surgery at a level where even the general surgery director of Raptor City’s Dee University Affiliated Hospital wanted to come learn from him, it was likely that Zhang Fan would also be skilled at the major and difficult general surgeries.

  As Zhao Quanping walked back to his own director’s office, he mulled over the superintendent’s words. He calmed down and felt that she was actually correct. The doctors in the general surgery department were far too complacent. It was about time to make them feel a sense of loss.

  All of the doctors and nurses in the proctology department were quite happy with all of their newfound work. Only by having patients would the medical staff have more bonuses. Who wouldn’t want more bonus money? The head nurse seemed like she was on fire every day at work as she said in rapid succession things like: “Who’s in charge of patient #17? He’s smoking in his room! The doctor in charge needs to go scold him. Patient #33 is about to be discharged. Hurry and clean things up. We need to make room for the next patient.” This was all because she was so energized. The head nurse’s energy state would be representative of the other nurses’ motivation and energy. With how things were, everyone in the proctology department would earn significantly increased income.

  Although everyone was really fatigued at the end of each day, they were still really happy. Nobody liked to work in a department that the entire hospital looked down on. People would want face.

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  Zhang Fan’s status was imperceptibly and slowly rising. Before, when most doctors from other departments saw Zhang Fan, the younger doctors would address him as Doctor Zhang, while the older doctors would simply nod. Also, few of the staff in the medical laboratory departments would recognize Zhang Fan.

  But now, so many people would address him as Director Zhang. Respect came from power. This saying was absolutely correct! Before, Zhang Fan would always get embarrassed whenever others praised him. Zhang Fan would even explain to the other party that he was unworthy of such praise. Actually, others were simply praising him out of politeness, so Zhang Fan’s explanation was going rather overboard. But now, Zhang Fan was getting older and becoming more experienced in dealing with Chinese society.

  He would nod when it was necessary, he would speak when it was necessary, and he would stand and chat with someone when it was necessary. Maybe he was maturing! If you didn’t mature and understand how Chinese society worked, things would only become harder and more uncomfortable for you since everyone here was a part of Chinese society. Maturing and understanding how Chinese society worked would help everyone save time!

  Zhang Fan’s parents finally returned from their Beijing vacation. They immediately cooked a meal of barbequed meat the moment that they returned home. They were both starving due to eating mostly only coarse rice over the past week. Zhang Fan’s mother was someone who usually could only eat a small bowl of beef noodles, but she was eating three large bowls of nothing but coarse rice over the past few days!

  “I almost starved to death!” Zhang Fan’s father commented to his relatives. Zhang Fan’s uncle had also been preparing to go visit Beijing through the travel agency. Beijing was filled with smog, and locals there looked down on outsiders. However, Chinese people would still have special feelings for Beijing as it was the capital. This was even more so for people of Zhang Fan’s parents’ generation.

  A Chinese person could curse Shanghai or Hong Kong or Taiwan, but no Chinese person would be allowed to curse Beijing. Otherwise, older people would likely start an argument with you. Although the older people had all gone through the same generational events, Beijing’s importance had been imprinted on them during their youth.

  “It’s not that serious, is it? Could it be that you couldn’t even eat anything?” Zhang Fan’s uncle remarked in astonishment.

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  “While they did provide us with three meals per day, breakfast was nothing more than porridge with plain buns and pickled vegetables. For lunch, more than 10 of us would be seated at a single table that had only four dishes which were each the size of my hand. How much food do you think those dishes could contain? During the last few days, my wife would eat three large bowls of nothing but rice at each meal. Moreover, it was the coarsest type of rice. You think we starved or not? So, you absolutely mustn’t sign up with this travel agency,” Zhang Fan’s father told him while enjoying a large bite of fatty meat.

  Zhang Fan’s father then said, “Look, this is a waistband we purchased which cost us more than 3,000 yuan. We used it for only three days so far, but you see, this waistband is already falling apart. They’re such a group of scammers. Yesterday, I brought this waistband over to the travel agency. Guess what they told me? They said that the waistband sellers are unaffiliated with their company, so if we want a refund, we would have to go back to Beijing and find them ourselves! Sigh, we really were scammed big time!”


  Human nature really wasn’t that good. Many elderly people from this neighborhood had gone on the same vacation with the same travel agency already. However, why were there still so many who were getting scammed? One reason was because this travel agency really did have many shills working for them. The other reason was because the scammed were feeling jealous. “Since I’ve already been scammed, it’s not fair that you weren’t scammed yet! I won’t tell you anything!” They would think in such a manner.

  Additionally, most people here in Zhang Fan’s parents’ neighborhood were already retired. They would have only a meager pension while maybe also working part-time for a little extra money. But now, Zhang Fan’s family had even opened up a little store, as well as purchased a new apartment in the central part of town. Others were jealous of their newfound wealth!

  Zhang Fan’s parents had originally been slightly unwilling to give up on their old neighborhood until now. They finally made the decision to sell their old apartment here after New Year’s. That was because it wasn’t only their family that got scammed. Almost every single elderly person in this neighborhood had fallen for the exact same scam! The people in this neighborhood were the classical type where the poorer they were, the more they would want to make others even poorer than them!

  Still, Zhang Fan’s parents didn’t mention anything about this to him. They felt that it had to be difficult already for their son to be out all alone in a different province. Not only that, his job was important for saving lives. Thus, Zhang Fan’s mother would always only say that she was doing well and eating well and having fun every time that Zhang Fan called her. Basically, nothing at all was wrong with her life according to herself! She would never mention how starving she had been on the Beijing trip. This was simply how his parents were! They were the type who would only report about good news, and never trouble their precious son unless it was really necessary!

  Since Shao Hua was currently in Thailand together with Jingshu, Zhang Fan would either go work at another hospital after his work shift or come right back home after work and study. He would split his studying by reading medical textbooks for one hour before switching to studying English for one hour by memorizing vocabulary, reading English medical articles, and learning English grammar.

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  Zhang Fan would seem to be as unmoving as a statue when he was reading medical textbooks. At most, he would occasionally flip a page as he read the medical textbook and combined the knowledge within with his work experience. He found it quite fun to ponder difficult medical problems.

  However, Zhang Fan would seem like a monkey in a zoo when it was his time to study English. He would constantly scratch his head or touch his face in between flipping pages. He would also constantly check the English textbook to see how many pages were still remaining. He found English to be truly difficult. It was common for one word to have many different meanings at different times, which seemed really ridiculous to him. There was also grammar such as past tense or past participle which didn’t exist in Chinese. English grammar really gave Zhang Fan such a headache. However, he still had to learn English. No matter if he had to crawl or kneel, the mountain known as English was one he absolutely had to climb. Otherwise, his medical skills would forever be limited. The Chinese medical field simply wasn’t as well developed or skilled as foreign medical fields!

  Zhang Fan felt a significant amount of pressure from the English he was learning, even though he didn’t need to take any tests or use any English during his normal work. Zhang Fan’s current level of English would be more than enough for any regular doctor. In fact, his current English level could already be considered outstanding here in the border province.

  However, Zhang Fan had become far more ambitious due to receiving his System. He wanted to go see what world-class medical treatment was like. He also wanted to stand at the very peak of the medical world and compete with top-level medical professionals.

  Zhang Fan wanted even more to research all sorts of illnesses that were still major problems for humanity. Not only would he have to open up more courses in his System for this, he would also have to absorb more professional medical knowledge. How was he supposed to do this? He would first have to conquer the tremendous mountain known as English. English would be his greatest tool and weapon. How was he supposed to conquer anything without any tools or weapons?

  “Zhang Fan, you should take a rest. Look at you, you’ve been studying for several hours already. I purchased a small melon for you that I just washed. You need to eat more fruits and drink more water. Also, have some chicken soup in a bit. Shao Hua’s cousin just brought over a chicken. I broiled it for an entire day with some root of hairy asiabell. It should taste pretty good.”


  Although Shao Hua wasn’t home right now, her parents were really satisfied with how Zhang Fan would immediately come home after work and start studying after he ate dinner. This meant that Zhang Fan was treating this place as his own home as well!

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