System Came When the Doctor was Thirty

Since Professor Zhong Junyun took the initiative to say they didn’t need to accompany him to the noon drinking engagement, Lu Cheng just went with the flow and bowed out.

Actually, given Professor Zhong Junyun’s status, if he had asked for Lu Cheng to accompany him, Huang Haibo could have reported it to the medical affairs department and had Lu Cheng, this ”person in charge,” temporarily ease off his on-duty schedule.

Xiangzhou People’s Hospital is a comprehensive institution; it has to run normally no matter who’s absent—the only differences are in the types of diseases they admit and the choices of treatment.

However, just as Lu Cheng stepped out of the operating room, Professor Chen Song’s call came through.

Lu Cheng chose to pick up: ”Lu Cheng, the news has been confirmed.”

”Your operative level really has reached that kind of unbelievable realm.”

”But at the same time, some other messages have come along with it. I thought it over and decided I should still pass them on to you.”

”First, the trauma surgery department at Jishuitan Hospital has sounded out about you. They said if you’re willing to go to Jishuitan, their director is willing to sit down and talk with you.”

”Second, Huaxi Hospital is currently putting particular emphasis on the development of basic disciplines like orthopedics…”

The meaning Chen Song was relaying really boiled down to just two points.

First, the information is reliable, and your ability is reliable.

Second, someone wants to poach you.

Lu Cheng replied without hesitation: ”Thank you, Teacher Chen, for going to the trouble. I can only accept these teachers’ kindness in my heart.”

”I already have my own plan for the future. That’s not going to be easily shaken.”

Chen Song thought for a moment and still said: ”Xiao Lu, there’s one thing I really don’t understand. Why are you so fixated on clinging to the hospital where Nanshu works?”

Lu Cheng strolled back, feeling relaxed and clear-headed at this moment.

First, the operation he’d just done was extremely satisfying.

Second, he’d just witnessed Professor Zhong Junyun’s almost supernatural ability and skill.

Honestly, a true giant in clinical practice really can make many clinicians feel despair.

That’s not some half-baked skill set. With that kind of ability, as long as you give him a platform, he can pull a department’s professional level up to that of a top-tier hospital.

A National Master-level doctor, single-handedly lifting an entire department, single-handedly dominating an entire province—that’s not a joke.

If there’s a surgery you don’t dare take, I’ll take it. So stop whining.

It’s not that surgical technique is useless; any technique is useful. Don’t worry that your unparalleled skills won’t be appreciated.

More often, it’s just that your skills and abilities are too easily replaceable, which is why you’re just another guy on the roadside.

On that basis, Lu Cheng replied: ”Teacher Chen, to me, right now it feels more or less the same wherever I go.”

”Resources may differ slightly, but the platform at Union Hospital can support practically any specialty.”

”Besides, Dai Linfang has been discussing a lot of things with me lately.”

”I think what he said makes sense, so I might be staying in Ji City for a longer stretch.”

Chen Song was quite surprised: ”What things? That can make a blockhead like you stay longer?”

”Did you get bewitched by some kind of sorcery from Dai Linfang?”

Of course Chen Song believed that Lu Cheng was essentially a free agent; he was just hoping that at Union Hospital Lu Cheng would run into some melodramatic TV-drama nonsense—get suppressed by his superiors, targeted by professors, tossed around by the hospital leadership.

Because only then would Chen Song have the first crack at digging Lu Cheng out.

As long as both Lu Cheng and Mu Nanshu are provoked, the two of them are both the type who aren’t afraid of trouble.

Back in undergrad, they dared to curse out academicians!

Now resigning from a job would be the most normal thing in the world.

”There are some special factors that aren’t convenient to talk about publicly. Teacher Chen, I think it’s pretty good here, you know?” The things Dai Linfang had told Lu Cheng really couldn’t be disclosed.

Though Xiangzhou is remote and economically underdeveloped, it is indeed a rather special geographic location.

Which has nothing to do with its physical coordinates in reality…

Since 2015, basically all provincial poverty alleviation resources have been tilting toward Xiangzhou.

The reasons for this pretty much don’t need to be spelled out.

Even many out-of-province poverty alleviation resources have been channeled this way.

And as it happens, medical poverty alleviation is one of the segments within poverty alleviation…

These matters are something Chen Song can choose not to think about at all—he just has to do what he’s supposed to do.

But Lu Cheng, by contrast, has an innate advantage in terms of resources: he can prove that this poverty alleviation is working well.

Lu Cheng is on Xiangzhou’s staffing establishment; he can serve as proof that this policy is effective—that’s something many people are very happy to see.

...

”Alright, alright, I won’t talk to you about this anymore.”

”You’ve always been someone with your own ideas.”

Chen Song then shifted the topic: ”But Lu Cheng, you need to understand that the operations you can perform aren’t necessarily ones other people can.”

”The surgeries you can do aren’t necessarily ones others can manage to learn. If the opportunity arises, you still need to think about simplifying some procedures!”

”That’s the conceptual approach of medicine abroad. Over there, they don’t just compete on individual ability; they use instruments, drugs, and so on to replace our medical staff’s manual operations and treatments.”

”The overall treatment efficacy may not actually be any worse than ours.”

Here, Chen Song was speaking to Lu Cheng in the capacity of someone with ”limited ability.”

What he meant was, you can stand above the crowd, your ability can be invincible, but you mustn’t forget the road you came from.

Your own operative skills may well reach astonishing heights on the individual level, but other people don’t—and the people you’re supposed to teach aren’t like you.

They may never reach your level. So if you want to pass on your original treatment protocols through teaching, you have to do subtraction.

Surgical techniques that cannot be replicated are a one-man show, a final solo performance.

Medicine needs solo performances, but even more, it needs solid craft—medical techniques that can be handed down.