System Came When the Doctor was Thirty

July, Long County, night.

The old-fashioned air conditioner blows cold air against the deflector, making a slight clattering noise.

”You want to transfer from orthopedics to emergency?”

In the Gaojia Slope District not far from Linyuelu Avenue County People’s Hospital, Uncle Lu Nanyong slapped the table, glaring: ”What do you think you are? What exactly are you?”

”Modu Huashan Hospital didn’t want you as an undergraduate for graduate studies; did it affect its status?”

”Han City University Zhongnan Hospital doesn’t care about your desire not to study as a master’s intern there; did it affect its normal operations?”

”State People’s Hospital’s orthopedics department looks down on your academic background; did it collapse?”

”You’ve just settled down for a few years? And now you’re starting to act up again?”

”You haven’t had enough of society’s harsh beatings? Still acting recklessly...”

”You’re just the attending, there’s a long future ahead, your opportunity will come.”

Lu Nanyong pushed his glasses with his left hand, pointing at Lu Cheng’s nose with his right, spitting furiously: ”Don’t think you can do whatever you want just because your parents are uneducated and let you be!!”

”Stay honestly in orthopedics, and after a while, I’ll find an opportunity to have a drink with your department director... and think of a solution for you...”

Lu Cheng sat opposite, his expression and tone calm: ”Uncle, it’s useless.”

”Staying in orthopedics leads nowhere; there’s no opportunity for me to perform surgeries.”

”Not to mention, besides Director Peng, there are five other deputy chief physicians fighting to do surgeries; last June, Director Peng’s son returned from graduating master’s at Xiangya Second Hospital.”

”You’re well aware of the status of the other deputy chief physicians.”

”There’s no chance even for stitching up wounds, let alone proper surgeries.”

”Uncle, I’m a surgeon; I need to accumulate surgeries to practice my skills.”

”Skills can’t be improved by just reading books and writing medical records.” Lu Cheng calmly analyzed.

Lu Nanyong is also a doctor, but a Traditional Chinese Medicine doctor at County Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital, the most ’prestigious’ relative in the family, capable of guiding Lu Cheng’s path.

Lu Cheng is an orthopedic doctor at Long County People’s Hospital, officially employed.

”What surgery volume can you accumulate in the emergency? What skills can you learn?”

”What surgeries can your hospital’s emergency department perform?” Lu Nanyong didn’t refute Lu Cheng but questioned harshly!

Lu Cheng replied: ”Uncle, maybe not before, but now it’s possible.”

”Our hospital is affiliated with Xiangya Second Hospital’s medical alliance, and Professor Chen Song from Xiangya Second Hospital’s emergency surgery department happened to come for support and is stationed in the emergency department.”

”According to the hospital’s intentions, in principle, any surgery not possible in specialized departments can be performed by Professor Chen Song!”

It’s difficult for doctors to advance titles; it requires academic qualifications, articles, and further studies or rural support.

”What if Professor Chen leaves? Don’t you understand the nature of the rural support?”

”How many rural support doctors sincerely stay in the hospital for surgeries? It’s commendable to perform surgeries for one day a week.”

”Even if you’ve checked beforehand, this Professor Chen is different from others, but he’s bound to leave.”

”Once he leaves, won’t the emergency department return to its original state?”

”At most six months, even just three months; what can you learn?”

Lu Cheng squinted his eyes and looked at the panel only he could see:

[Great Doctor System: Comprehensive Level (Inpatient Doctor)]

[Corrected postoperative medication through medical orders, reducing chances of patient gastric ulcers, gaining 0.1 Skill Points.]

[Avoided postoperative infections through dressing changes, gaining 0.2 Skill Points.]

[Through...]

[Completed one instance of wound cleaning skill, gaining 0.6 Skill Points.]

[Remaining Skill Points: 13 points.]

Lu Cheng discovered he awakened this system half a month ago.

But the patient volume in the county hospital is inherently small, with minimal surgeries in orthopedics. Lu Cheng’s only increase in single-digit Skill Points was during his shift, handling an emergency small wound cleaning alone one night.

In orthopedics, several deputy chief physicians compete for surgeries due to performance metrics and future ward chief positions, fighting fiercely, each with extensive connections.

Lu Cheng’s uncle, although a doctor in Traditional Chinese Medicine, is somewhat connected but ultimately powerless.

An attending physician unable to accumulate surgery volume immediately becomes exposed under the panel’s strength evaluation, with ’Inpatient Doctor’ glaringly engraved in Lu Cheng’s brain cortex.

”That’s still better than staying in orthopedics! At least I can do wound cleaning and perform small surgeries like appendectomies, better than waiting behind those big guys in orthopedics.”

Lu Cheng said, his mouth twitching: ”Uncle, surgery requires manual skills, not just flattery for skill improvement.”

”I’ve navigated office politics in the department for four years, not just a year or two, but four to five years, useless! I know it’s useless!”

”Not to mention scrambling for surgeries to compete for chief positions; just the surgeon’s performance reward for more work, what do these surgeries have to do with me...”

”Sitting at home reading won’t reveal surgical skills, Uncle.” Lu Cheng’s breathing is rapid and messy.

Returning to the county hospital, life is indeed comfortable. If you want to lie flat for life, only seeking small money for a comfortable ”mix,” then nothing is more comfortable.

If you don’t want to lead, then everyone’s your leader.

But such a doctor is less rewarding than being a nurse giving IVs and injections to patients, merely a high-level worker writing medical records for the department, ultimately powerless.

”But once you leave orthopedics, there’s no chance of returning, Lu Cheng; do you understand your uncle’s meaning?”

Lu Nanyong squeezed out a bitter melon expression, saying.

Being a doctor naturally depends on skills nationwide; as long as you’re excellent enough, you can flourish anywhere!

Even if your skills are superior, performing surgeries even professors can’t do, top professors will treat you courteously.

Yet such a frustrating, ’delusional’ contradiction, how to achieve?

If you don’t learn medical skills, where do they come from, magically?

If you don’t practice medical skills, how do you become proficient? Is merely reading enough?

Lu Cheng, with some talent, finds it really inadequate, and his luck is poor, unable to support him in facing challenges without fail, but getting crushed by office politics, gasping for breath.

Ultimately, relationship-oriented people aren’t terrifying; the scary part is if you don’t surpass them significantly! Then all that’s left is despair!!

Lu Cheng nodded, his delicate face returning to calm, his voice low: ”Uncle, if I say I don’t want to become like you all my life, can you not be angry?”

”Big hospitals currently prioritize academic and research, while small places focus on results.”

”I know you mean well for me, but skill learning requires ’tossing around.’”

”Having suffered over the years, I’m acutely aware of this.”

”Academic qualifications didn’t improve, not forming ’mentor-student’ relationships with teachers; why would anyone teach me skills?”

”Without sufficient patient volume and operation volume, how can I practice skills?”

”Ordinary people like us can only go to the hardest, most exhausting places, diligently honing skills and completing comprehensive theory to have a chance at becoming better doctors.”

Lu Nanyong listened and glanced at Lu Cheng: ”You know these principles?”

”Why did you fail your subsequent graduate entrance examination back then?”

”Why were you unwilling to retake it later?”

Lu Cheng decisively replied: ”Uncle, those things are past, discussing them further is meaningless; we should focus on the present.”

”Right now, what I want is to go to the emergency department, see if I can learn some skills from Professor Chen Song, and first grasp some surgeries in my hands.”

”No matter how professionalized the hospital becomes, it’s still a hospital; as long as I perform surgeries others can’t complete, I will have my stage.”

”Competing for already mature surgeries in the hospital, sitting cold benches would make my bottom frostbite!”

”Uncle, don’t talk to my parents about these matters; telling them won’t help and would make them uncomfortable.” Lu Cheng added.

Don’t dwell on the past; dwelling on the past is the most useless thing, you either live in the present or live below the belt.

Lu Nanyong shrugged his high forehead, adamantly saying: ”I know... back then?”

Lu Cheng laughed, his tone finally a bit pale: ”Uncle, it’s already 2023, not 2014 or 2015. I’m thirty, no longer the twenty-three, twenty-four-year-old lad I once was; talking about the past is irrelevant...”

”The current decision to go to the emergency department, learn some new skills to break through, is the best choice I, at thirty, can make.”

”Moreover, it must be during the period when Professor Chen Song comes for support!”

”Besides this path, there’s no right one!~”

”This time it’s not whimsy; I’ve considered it carefully.”